Bolt: Deception of War
by Bane7567
Summary: While being pursued by Calico, Penny and Bolt are abducted by Grievous. Though rescued by the Jedi, they are still faced with the cold reality of war. Rated T for Sci-Fi violence throughout.
1. Prologue

The following events take place between the Clone Wars movie and season one.

Prologue

"Ah, there you are!" a bald doctor said, entering with his assistant into the hospital room, currently holding a young, red-haired girl, named Penny lying in bed.

Doctor Bettings, Penny's personal physician, had blond hair wrapping around the back of his head with a mustache, and wore glasses, and a navy blue tie with red stripes. He, along with two other surgeons, was the one who performed the surgery on Penny's face after the accident. She and her American White shepherd, Bolt, were in pursuit of one of Calico's agents at night by a harbor, when he the agent led her into a heavy traffic intersection. Now normally Penny was able to dodge cars and trucks on her scooter with ease, especially with Bolt. But the dark minion had deployed small balls, which were actually miniature mines, out on the road in front of her. Penny had attempted to dodge them to no avail, the mines detonated on both her and nearby cars. She lost control of her scooter was sent sailing off into the intersection, bashing her face on a passing truck, falling onto the hood of a car, and rolling into the explosions. Bolt was horrified. He had failed to protect Penny, and almost vomited at the sight of her disfigured face. However, some by-passers did vomit, as a young couple hastily took the unconscious girl to the hospital, leaving Bolt behind. She wasn't expected to survive, but if she did it still was still expected that her face would never return to normal. But she had come at just the right time, Bettings had managed to repair her completely, although she had to wear a full head bandage for two weeks. The linen had dampened with her tears for fear she was disfigured forever, even with the greater fear that Bolt was all alone out in the city. Which was why Bettings was eager to give her the good news and remove the bandages. Penny lifted her head from a deep sleep. "It's time to get those bandages off."

Penny shot up like a rocket from her bed, stopping when her head starting throbbing again. She sat up in her bed, as her doctor carefully cut the cloth and began unraveling it. "Fortunately, your injuries were not as...severe as we had previously thought my dear," the doctor continued, as the blinding light hit Penny's eyes. "And we didn't have to completely reconstruct your face." After he disposed of the bandages, he turned to his dark-skinned assistant who handed him a mirror which he gave to Penny. "Have a look."

She brought it up to her face, and released a large sigh to see her face just as it had been. "Well…" She rubbed her sweat-covered cheek to ensure it was real, then turned back to Bettings beaming. "Thank you so much, doctor, I…" she started.

"It was my pleasure, you got here just in time. Any later and it would have been much worse," Bettings said. "Now we've already contacted your family, and your father's insurance should cover this."

"Okay," Penny answered with relieve.

"Well, we think you're pretty stable by now," the female assistant continued. "Now, get dressed and we'll get you something to eat." Penny rose with glee at the thought of actual food that wasn't through a mechanical straw. Penny quickly got dressed back into her usual clothes, a red hoodie with a black shirt underneath, and her jet-black jeans, which she had decided to wear instead of her usual striped grey and black stockings that covered her legs. Penny sat back in her bed seeing Betting and the assistant re-enter. "How do you feel?" Bettings questioned, as a slim man wheeled in her food cart

"Fine," she answered. "You know, it's almost too bad. With a new face Calico wouldn't have been able to recognize me. Not that I'm not happy." Penny then looked over at the man by the cart, wondering what had been prepared for her. He turned around to reveal that he was holding a vaccine injector, containing a green liquid, as he started laughing evilly. Penny looked closer to see his left eye was green. "Calico!" Penny snarled. He just kept laughing as he advanced towards Penny with the needle.

"Hey! Who are you? What do you think…" the doctor was cut off as he and the nurse suddenly found themselves at gunpoint by two of Calico's men.

Calico got nearer and nearer until he was right over the bed, he lunged the needle forwards. But then, two green beams shot through the window and vaporized the container. Calico lurched back and turned to see where the lasers had come from. The source suddenly came bursting through the window and pinned Calico down on the floor. "BOLT!" Penny cried smiling. Before turning to his mistress, Bolt hastily dispatched the two henchmen holding Bettings and his assistant, the two stumbled back in surprise. Penny leaped out of bed and embraced her companion, but Calico was regaining his footing. Penny turned back to the shaken doctors, "Doctor Bettings, I have to go. I'll get back to ASAP," she yelled from the other end of the room. Bolt had just super-barked a hole in the wall. The two jumped out and Penny closed her eyes before hitting the ground. But something strange happened, they hadn't hit the ground, they weren't that high up. She opened her eyes to see they were hovering just above the ground, surrounded by a blue light, as she looked over at Bolt in confusion, the suddenly began _ascending_, into the air.

Calico looked out the hole in the wall to see it all. "What the…" he stuttered. Penny screamed as she and Bolt were both sucked into one of the three curious looking ships. After they were inside, the blue light was cut off, and the three ships blasted off into space. Calico stood in shock as he removed his mask, then sneered, "Aliens."


	2. Chapter 1

Bolt: Deception of War

_In war, the difference between truth and deception is shrouded._

News Reel

A galaxy divided by war! Peaceful planets must choose sides, or face the threat of invasion! Unable to keep up with the rapidly moving Separatist Fleet, led by the notorious General Grievous, the Republic cannot spare enough time, ships, or Jedi, to stop Separatist advances in the Outer Rim, and far reaches of space.

Meanwhile, while being pursued by the fiendish Dr. Calico's sinister agents, Penny and her dog Bolt were abducted by General Grievous, mistaking Penny for a Republic Intelligence Agent. After learning of the General's mistake and seeing this as an opportunity to catch the monster, the Jedi Council sends Master Plo Koon, Anakin Skywalker, and his padawan Ahsoka Tano to save Penny and Bolt before Grievous realizes their true identities…

Chapter 1

Three Republic Attack Cruisers, dropped out of Hyperspace, near a large, dead moon, keeping its distance from three of Grievous's cruisers. Aboard the bridge of_ Resolute_, Plo stared at the cruisers pondering the fact that the monster who was responsible for so many deaths, clones, Jedi and innocents alike, was out there, on one of those ships, holding a young , innocent, and most likely terrified child captive. Plo only prayed that Grievous hadn't gotten around to interrogation yet, torturing her for information she didn't have. Plo shuddered at the thought and quickly dismissed it. _We will save her,_ Plo thought. He heard the doors of the bridge open behind him, in entered Anakin , Admiral Yularen, and Ahsoka, or "Little Soka" as Plo had come to know her. Plo broke out of his train of thought and turned to the three. "Koh-toh-yah Skywalker, Little Soka," he said with, what they assumed was under his mask, a grin.

"Master Plo," Anakin said, bowing his head slightly. "It's good to see you again. Now what exactly do we know about these two?'

"Very little," Plo responded. "All we know is that her father is a renowned scientist and is the enemy of someone named 'Dr. Calico', who apparently tried to kidnap the girl. No record of file on that name."

"Well, being held by Grievous is all I need to know," Anakin assured. "And, should our attack strategy go as planned, we'll be able to trap and capture Grievous once and for all."

"And what exactly is our strategy, General?" Ahsoka asked.

Anakin simply smiled and turned to Yularen. "Admiral?"

"Grievous is still unaware of our presence, so we'll use that to our advantage," he said, pulling out a hologram projector. The blue images of six cruisers and the moon flashed in front of them as he began pushing the controls on the projector, evaluating their plan. "If we can approach them undetected, we can bring two of our cruisers around in front, leaving one behind to block of their escape. Once we have trapped them we will launch both our fighters and boarding ships to rescue the hostages and capture Grievous."

"What do you think snips?" Anakin said with a confident smirk.

"I've heard better," Ahsoka boasted, walking over to Plo's point of view of the projection.

Anakin sighed. "You mean Obi-Wan, don't you?"

"How'd you guess?" Ahsoka said holding back a smile as best as she could.

"Very funny, but we'll see how good Obi-Wan's strategies seem after this one," Anakin said, once again, with much confidence. "Admiral, move our ships into position, and prepare all fighters for attack."


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Grievous entered the bridge of his flagship, _Decimator_, and approached the command chair. His tactical droid, TV-94, turned around and approached him handing him a data pad. "General, we have successfully evaded the Republic Fleet, and are parsecs away from any Republic presence." He said, proud of his accomplishment. "An ideal place to begin interrogation of the captive."

Grievous stared at the console screen for a moment before responding. "You're sure there are no other ships in the area, I cannot afford to take risks anymore." He replied very strictly. After so many failures, he wasn't sure how many more of them Dooku would tolerate.

"Yes, I am sure I have calculated all of the data correctly," TX-94 assured. "If any ships **do **enter the sector, we will know about it."

Grievous trusted the droid's logistics, he had never failed him before, which was why he was still intact. Despite Dooku's protests, Grievous all too often took out his frustrations on nearby droids. "By the way," the droid continued. "Don't you think the subject is a bit…young, for a Intelligence Agent. Even though the Republic has a large variety of agents, I find it highly illogical that they would have a teenager perform such tasks."

"NAH!" Grievous shouted, flinging the data pad across the bridge, narrowly missing his tactical droid. "Look, whether it is logical or not, she matches the description, I will not embarrass myself in front of the Count again. Now I have ordered her onto the bridge, we shall see how much see really knows, before torturing her."

Grievous was true to his words. Within moments Penny finally arrived on the bridge, struggling against her battle droid and MagnaGuard escort. "What took so long?" Grievous asked angrily.

"Sorry sir," the droid commander replied. "Both her and her dog gave us much resistance, even with the guards staffs."

"How could that effect anything? It's just a small human and a dog!"

"Yes sir, but for some reason the dog was more powerful than we assumed, took out three of our droids until we finally sedated him."

Sure enough, one of the guards was carrying the white dog's limp body. _That still doesn't explain the girl,_ Grievous snarled in his head. _Incompetent Battle Droids!_ All the same they had done their duty. "Thank you commander, that will be all," Grievous said as he gestured him away, the guards dropped Penny and Bolt on the floor of the bridge. "So, you are the Republic Intel Agent, it's so nice to meet you," Grievous said, emphasizing his sarcasm on "nice".

Penny finally looked up from Bolt and said shakily, "For the last time, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Of course you don't," he answered as he gestured for one of the MagnaGuards to stab her. Penny cowered waiting for the violent shock to hit her. But instead, the staff came down beside her, and into Bolt, who jerked at the sudden shock.

"No, NO!," she screamed, attempting to lift the staff off him.

"It would appear that you and this mutt are close," Grievous chuckled. "So if you want him to stay alive, then I suggest that you give me all of the information you know about the Republic."

Penny merely looked at him, tears began streaming down her cheeks, "But…I, I don't know anything," she choked.

Grievous squinted, "Very well then." Once again he ordered the staff down on him, the guard brought down the staff much harder this time, almost piercing his side. Penny only watched in horror as the droid's staff drained the life from her friend. She couldn't take it anymore, she threw herself into the staff's path, blocking any more of the electricity to him. Grievous hastily ordered the staff off and looked down on her, and said, "How precious, a girl sacrificing herself for the love of her dog, it touches me." With that he kicked Penny off of Bolt, sending her sailing into a wall. "But nevertheless, I am losing time and patience," he growled as he ignited a dark blue lightsaber and turned it towards Bolt. "Now, you will give me any information you know, or you can watch your precious little dog die."

Penny looked at Bolt, then back up to Grievous. She could do nothing, she couldn't give Grievous any information because she didn't have any. And she couldn't run because the guards would simply stab or shoot her. She would just have to watch her best friend be killed, knowing she would soon follow. "I…I…" she stuttered.

Suddenly the ship lurched. "General!" a droid shouted.

"What now!" Grievous snarled.

"Three Republic ships are coming up behind us."

Grievous paused, then he knew right away who could be so bold. "Skywalker."


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The three attack cruisers executed the plan flawlessly. Within minutes, Grievous's ships were surrounded. On the bridge, Anakin beamed at how well his plan had fallen into place. _Grievous surrounded, our shields are holding, all ships and troops are ready for battle,_ his head pieced together all the facts, double-checking that he hadn't missed anything. This could be the long awaited day when Grievous was brought to justice. Anakin was less concerned about the rescue part of the mission, he'd been waiting for this capture far too long, rescuing the two captives would just be a bonus. But he was still worried at all, he shivered at the thought they were too late, that Grievous had learned of his mistake and killed them both. He tried not to think about it, if he let his emotions cloud his focus on the mission, Grievous would escape once again, he couldn't let that happen. He turned back to Yularen and asked, "Are all ships ready for launch?"

"Yes sir," he responded. "All the men are at their stations."

"Good, Ahsoka, you have the bridge."

"This still about my flying, isn't it?" she said, raising an eyebrow.

"Not at all snips, I just believe you would be the better the better commander for this battle," he said, reassuringly as he walked away. "Artoo, prepare my and Plo's fighters for launch." A happy three-chirp came from the other end of his comlink.

"We must be sure we board the correct ship," Plo cautioned. "The clones will not be able to take Grievous alone."

"Knowing the good general, he'll probably be the one in the middle and prominently in front, fortunately for us Grievous likes to make his presence known, it's his weakness."

"Though he denies it, everyone has one," Plo agreed. Grievous did have a weakness, a weakness they were going to exploit.

Grievous looked out at the Republic cruisers surrounding him. Skywalker's strategy was quite clear, He not only intended to rescue his captives, but capture him as well. Grievous turned to Penny, still on the floor, and said, "Well child, it would appear that your friends have come to save you." Penny wanted to say something, but decided that anyone who tried to save her was friendly. "Sadly, they will never reach you. Guards!" Two of the MagnaGuards grabbed her shirt and pulled her up. Another quickly went to Bolt, seeing him recover from his sedation. "Quickly, transfer the information in the computer and erase it. All troops prepare for boarding." Then Grievous turned to Penny. "As for these two, take them to my shuttle and take off immediately, I can't risk them getting near her." The guard nodded and pulled the two off the bridge. "Prepare all fighters for launch."

Within moments, starfighters were swarming in the space in between the cruisers. Grievous looked at the bridge's consoles, awaiting the image of a Jedi Starfighter. With a beep, a small, triangular, yellow ship appeared on the screen. "So, Skywalker has arrived," he said to himself. Suddenly, another starfighter appeared, this one was blue. "Ah, and he's brought a friend. Good, and extra lightsaber for my collection."

Laser fire began to fill the space. Anakin and Plo's starfighters began spinning left and right, narrowly avoiding the volley of shots. However, the Jedi weren't going to win this battle just by performing tricks. They had a plan.

"All right men," Plo said into his built-in comlink. "Skywalker, you and Warthog take Gold Squadron and keep the fighters from destroying our boarding craft. Captain Jag, R7 will find hangers for you and I and expose so our ships can land."

"Understood, sir," Jag responded.

"OK boys, last to 20 droids cleans R2," Anakin said, instantly getting out of that task.

"Copy that, sir," Gold 2 said. "Hey Det, don't forget to clean the servo-motors."

The rest of Gold Squadron laughed in response. Though it was short lived. The hundreds of Vulture droids that were approaching them were still pouring fire down on them. The V-19s returned it, sending Vulture droid heads and wings flying everywhere. "Stand by Master Plo," Anakin alerted. "Our ships are going to form a distraction by attacking one of the cruisers. This will give you a small window of time and space for your attack."

"Very good Skywalker," Plo responded. "Arseven, have you found a vacant hanger on Grievous' ship?" Plo got a happy beep in response. "All right, all boarding ships follow me."


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

When Penny, Bolt and their escort entered the hanger, it was engulfed in flame, Fire battle droids were swarming around them, blasting the raging fires with their hoses. Penny had little time to look as she was constantly bustled along by the two guards, escorting her to the shuttle. Suddenly, there was a loud crash, they looked up to see a flaming support beam falling towards them. Penny screamed and pulled away from the droids just in time, the beam crushed the droids, freeing Penny. She stared at the smoldering remains of the guards, then turned to Bolt. "Okay boy," she panted. "Now what?"

Then she saw the shuttle she was being taken to. She hesitated for a moment. _It's just gonna take me to more of them, _she thought. _But it's the only way off this bucket. May as well._ Just then, Bolt growled, Penny looked to see two droids looking out the back and spotting her. "Hey, you!" one of them shouted.

Bolt crouched and prepared for an attack. "Bolt wait…" Penny cautioned Just then it hit her. _Why don't I just get Bolt to take out the droids and overrun the shuttle. _Penny cursed herself for not thinking of it sooner. It was a stretch, but it was her only chance. "Okay Bolt," Penny said to her dog. "Stare!"

Bolt obeyed the command and glared at one of the droids, who exploded instantly. "What the…?" the other droid said in shock. Then Bolt charged the other, tackled him, and hurled him through the hanger shield into the vacuum of space, where he was blown to pieces by a V-19.

"Good boy," Penny said, stroking her companion. Then she ran up the ramp of the shuttle. As she approached the bridge, she saw two more droids, apparently the pilots. Bolt emitted another low growl. "Wait Bolt!" Penny shouted louder than she intended. The two pilots turned around and stared at her for a moment.

"Is that her?" one whispered.

"I think so," the other responded.

Bolt prepared to pounce, Penny quickly ran in front of him. "No Bolt, we need them to pilot us off here," Penny reminded him. Then she turned to the pilots. "Well, what are you waiting for? Go!" Penny snapped at them.

"Oh…uh, right," the pilot finally said and got on his comlink. "General, we have the hostages on board, are you sure we should leave in this battle?"

"Yes!" Grievous shouted from the other end of the comlink. "Don't worry, the Republic will not take any chances with their precious agent. But just to be safe, I am launching the TV-94 at the same time as a decoy. If they catch him we still have the agent. Now go!"

"Rodger Rodger," the pilot responded as he took the controls and lifted the shuttle out of the inferno of a hanger. Penny went back to the passenger cabin and strapped herself in. They would take out the pilots, not now, but soon.

"General, sir?" TV-94 inquired. "According to my calculations, the Republic will be boarding soon. I advise immediate evacuation."

Grievous agreed, not crazy about the idea of retreat. But it was his only chance of escape. Skywalker had him boxed in. Fleeing in his fighter or a shuttle was the only choice he had. "Very well," Grievous replied. "Take the information on the main computer, and flee on a shuttle as a decoy for the Republic. Should you escape, rendezvous with our forces at Sector 4."

"Yes my lord," the droid responded, nodded and left with a battle droid escort.

Grievous stared into the battle in front of him. "You may think you can catch me Skywalker, but your faith in your strategies will be your downfall," the General said to himself. Then he turned to his droids. "Is my fighter ready for launch?" he asked. The droid nodded. "Good. Launch all remaining ships to confuse them, and cover the retreat." Grievous looked back out into space. Though he wanted to stay and fight, if the Jedi boarded the ship, all chances of escape would be lost. The CIS couldn't afford to have him be captured. "Another time Skywalker," Grievous said, and turned to leave.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Onboard the bridge of the _Resolute_, Ahsoka noticed an unusual amount of ships in the space in front of them. Some were shuttles, making their way away from the battle zone. Ahsoka quickly got on the comlink. "Masters," she said to Plo and Anakin. "A few shuttles have departed from Grievous's ships. I think I can find the one the hostages are on."

"Get to it Snips," Anakin buzzed from the other side of the link. "Prepare a tractor beam. In the mean time, all pilots, do not fire on any shuttles until we've located the one those two are on. Understood?"

"Yes sir," Gold Squadron replied simultaneously.

"Artoo, you do the same. Grievous thinks we'll fall for his little decoy, well, he under estimates our…" Anakin trailed off, noticing a familiar Belbullab-22 starfighter streak across his path. "GRIEVOUS!," he shouted, veering his fighter off towards Grievous's direction, blasting his vulture fighter escort. Anakin quickly got on the comlink and said, "Master Plo! Call off the boarding ships, Grievous escaped in his fighter, I'll try to shoot him down."

"No!" Plo responded. "We have pinpointed the shuttle that those two are on, but we need help getting to it, the droids are not making it easy."

_When do they?_ Anakin chuckled to himself, then came back on the mission, "But master, Grievous is right here, right now!" he shouted, putting less and less focus on the hostages. "I can destroy him once and for all, if I can just…"

"It's too late for that," Plo interrupted. "We'll never be able to hold out here without you and your reinforcements." The Jedi had made up his mind. "If you and your fighters don't get back here, we'll be destroyed, and fail at both parts of the mission."

Anakin made his decision as well, taking one, final look at Grievous' fighter, then veered off again towards the Resolute, "Okay, Gold squadron, follow me. We need to reinforce the others. Master Plo, we're on our way."

"Very good Skywalker, cover us from the droids, we'll take care of…"

"General Plo!" Warthog shouted.

"What is it, trooper?"

"The shuttle the hostages are on has lost control, and is spinning back into the battle zone."

Plo already saw the spinning shuttle, then he saw another just as it jumped into hyperspace, most likely with the Tactical droid aboard. _Blast,_ Plo thought to himself. "No matter. Ahsoka have a tractor beam standing by, and prepare to receive the shuttle."

"Copy that master Plo," Ahsoka said from the other end.

Aboard the shuttle, Bolt pulled out the remains of what use to be the pilots, as Penny pulled on the throttles as hard as she could to maintain control of the shuttle. She knew absolutely nothing about piloting, except for the fact that crashing was bad. It was no use, no matter how hard she pulled or how many controls she pressed, it didn't help the situation. All she could do was dodge the incoming fighters, and hope for the best. Then, the ship lurched into an upright position. Penny looked around wondering what she did right. Some static and a deep voice buzzed from the com, "Separatist shuttle do you copy?" the voice said. Penny then realized she was the shuttle, she looked around for the button that activated her comlink. She took a wild guess and pressed a button by a speaker.

"Uh, this…is the separatist shuttle, and…" Penny trailed off, then regained her strength, talking like she was on the phone.

After a few moments, the deep voice returned, but in a much lighter tone, "Are you alright? What has happened aboard your shuttle?" he inquired.

"The pilots…uh, stopped functioning," she said, smirking at Bolt. "I'm fine, but have no clue how to fly this thing. I could use some help."

The voice chuckled before another male voice responded, "Don't worry, just sit back and relax, we'll do the flying."

"Uh…okay," she said not knowing how else to respond. The ship was steered upright by something, and was surrounded by a V-19 escort which was navigating her towards one of the Republic cruisers.

Meanwhile, Anakin had finished off the droids, clone cheers filled the com frequencies, and he was about to turn back to Grievous, but it was too late. He let out a heavy sigh when he saw Grievous's starfighter and the last of his evacuated ships jump to hyperspace. _We had him,_ Anakin's mind screamed with anger, _We could have captured that monster and been able to shorten this war. But he got away again, all for a kriffing kid. _Anakin eased back, realizing what he just called her, it wasn't entirely her fault, in fact it wasn't her fault at all. If it wasn't for her they never would have come this close to catching him in the first place. _Another time, Grievous,_ Anakin scowled. "Okay boys, good work. Mission accomplished," he said, _partially._


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Grievous's fighter dropped out of Hyperspace near the main Separatist fleet and base. Grievous pondered his failure and how Count Dooku would handle it. He found out when his ship's comlink went off, a flashy, blue image of the Count appeared in front of him. "General," he started in a flat tone. "How goes your mission with the agent?"

"Ah…well, you see count, I…" he began.

Dooku continued, "Because I have just received word from Lord Sideous that the Republic already had that certain agent on Coruscant. Not on your ship."

"It wasn't my fault, those stupid battle droids couldn't tell the difference between a Jawa and an Ithorian."

"I see. I take it you at least still have the other girl in custody."

Grievous went silent and looked down. "Most unfortunate," Dooku scowled.

"But…I," Grievous started.

"General," he interrupted. "I grow weary of your failures, I will not abide them much longer." The hologram vanished. Grievous snarled angrily.

The tractor beam gently set the Sheathipede shuttle down in the main hanger bay of the Resolute. Penny sighed with the knowledge that she and Bolt were finally safe. Although they were still unaware of who had even rescued them, but they, again, came to the conclusion that they meant them no harm and were only trying to get them home. Penny stood up to leave the shuttle, heart pounding, _from one unfamiliar environment to the next_, she thought. She calmed down with the thought that Bolt was with her. Ever since her father, Mark, had altered Bolt, Penny was always relaxed when Bolt was with her (even when he didn't have his abilities), with the knowledge that he would protect her no matter what. "Okay Bolt," she said, after finding enough courage to proceed. "Let's just do this." She moved towards the back of the ship, Bolt right by her side. Finding the button that opened the doors, Penny hesitated for a moment, "Okay girl, just relax. They're not going to hurt you, they just want to help," she whispered to herself. Bolt tilted his head slightly in confusion, wondering who she was talking to. Penny pressed the button and the doors slid aside and the ramp emerged from the floor, extending into the hanger. She cautiously looked out, surveying the area, she saw a variety of starfighters being operated on by clone troopers and technicians, she noted the larger one, an ARC-170, with a partially detached engine, along with Y-shaped bombers. Penny broke out of her fascination when she noticed many of the technicians had looked up from their duties and were staring at the enemy shuttle that had just landed, more specifically at the 12-year old standing in the doorway. She staggered for a moment wondering where to go. Then a trooper wearing blue armor, a pauldron, and battle skirt, with an antenna and cat-like eyes on his helmet approached her. Bolt growled again, but Penny gestured him away and stepped out of the shuttle. "Um...hi," she stammered, not knowing what else to say.

"Hey kid," the clone captain replied, removing his helmet revealing a bleached-blond, close cut head. "Are you alright? Gave us quite a scare there."

"Oh, yeah. I'm fine, don't worry, I just...relieved the pilots of duty."

Most of the surrounding clones chuckled at this, not because they didn't believe her, they just enjoyed the thought that even a kid could destroy clankers. Rex also chuckled, then continued, "Okay kid, now let's...wait, where's your friend?" he asked looking around for the other hostage described.

Penny then realized who he was referring to, "Oh, he's right here." She gestured down to the white shepherd at her side.

Rex stared down at Bolt for a moment, perplexed at the sight of a dog in the hanger. "Oh, uh...I see, well um, glad your okay and sorry you got mixed up in all of this, so..." Rex stuttered, now he was the one not knowing what else to say.

"We'd better get you home," finished trooper Coric, walking up behind Rex.

Rex regained himself, "Uh, right. I don't think we're too far from your home planet. We'll be under way in a little while, in the mean time...well," Rex ran all the possible scenarios of things she could do through his head. "Well, are you hungry?"

At the mention of food, Penny finally realized how hungry she was, having missed her meal in the hospital. "Yes. Yeah actually I am a little. They didn't really have food on the last ship."

"Well we have it here come on, I think we could all use a little grub, follow me."

Rex turned and began walking as the other clones gestured for her to go ahead of them. Penny limped behind Rex, still a little weak from her encounter with the good general. Bolt right at Penny's heels. She didn't worry about what they had to offer, she wasn't known to be picky, especially situations like this, and she didn't want to get in the way of this army or their war efforts. She just took comfort in the knowledge that it was all over, or so she thought.

* * *

_A/N_

_Okay I know, not the greatest way to end a chapter, but I couldn't think of anything else._


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Shortly after the battle and Anakin and Plo had landed on the _Resolute_, they both proceeded to the bridge to report their status to the Jedi Council. Anakin was more effected by the loss than anyone, even though the battle was won, Grievous had still managed to get away. He focused on that more than the rescue of the captives, unlike Plo who, although was still disappointed, was relieved that two more innocent lives hadn't been consumed in the conflict. The Jedi master always did focus on the positives. The doors of the bridge opened and the two Jedi entered, approaching the holo-table. "Get me General Kenobi," Anakin ordered the clone officer standing by.

"Right away, General," he responded, immediately beginning to fiddle with all the controls.

Ahsoka and Yularen entered through the other side, "No luck, huh Skyguy?" she asked, sensing he was unhappy.

Anakin looked up at his padawan, "Not today, Snips. Otherwise, I would be holding Grievous right now...in a jar."

She snickered along with the surrounding crew. "Sirs," the officer spoke up. "I've got the General."

"Put it through," Plo responded, sensing Anakin's worry.

The holographic images of four Jedi appeared before them, Kit Fisto, Mace Windu, Obi-Wan, and Luminara Unduli. "Skywalker," Mace began. "I trust you have some progress to report."

Anakin hesitated for a moment, "Ah...yes, masters. We were able to trap Grievous's fleet, but Grievous managed to evacuate multiple shuttles and himself off the ships, and blasted off into hyperspace before we could catch him or even had a chance to board."

The quartet of Jedi sighed softly before Luminara stated, "Evacuating entire ships and running off like a coward at the first sight of Republic ships." The Jedi master sadly chuckled to herself. "We should have expected such tactics from Grievous. By the way, what is the status of the hostages? Did Grievous escape with them too?"

Anakin sighed again at the mention, more agitated this time, "No, we managed to safely rescue both of them. In fact, they're the reason Grievous got away."

"Oh well," Obi-Wan said. "At least we were able to fulfill part of our duty by saving lives."

"Indeed," Mace continued. "But in this war, we can never seem to fulfill all our duties at once. And Grievous doesn't help that."

"This war could have been over," Anakin muttered to himself, but loud enough for Obi-Wan to hear.

"Anakin, it's not fair to blame them, they probably had no idea what was even going on. Hostage extraction comes before capture of anyone, even Grievous." Anakin looked down again. "Don't feel bad about it. There's always something preventing us from catching that monster. There's always a next time."

Anakin sighed, he'd hoped there wouldn't be a next time. "Very well then," Plo said finally. "So I assume the mission now is to return them to their home planet?"

"Correct," Mace answered. "And after your done with that, we need you to make a stop at Raxus Prime."

There was a brief pause before Ahsoka asked, "Raxus Prime? What could possibly be on that piece of junk of a planet that we could need?"

"Ahsoka," Anakin immediately responded in a calm tone. "What do want there, masters?"

Obi-Wan immediately responded. "We've discovered that there are resources there that could be useful to us."

"Such as?" Plo asked.

"There is a great deal of metal in one specific spot, reusable metal. Not to mention the ore that can be obtained by melting down the other metal. And best of all, the Separatists are unaware of it."

"Great," Ahsoka muttered. "Now we have to run errands."

"Ahsoka!" Anakin snapped, more harshly. "Sorry my masters, we're actually very close to that system. We can be underway shortly."

"Good," Mace answered. "Contact us when you arrive."

The four holograms vanished. Admiral Yularen began as soon as they did, "Generals, Raxus Prime is actually on the way to the home world of the former hostages, we can return them home and have our metals."

"Not right away of course, unless they don't mind a quick detour," Ahsoka added.

"No, but we can scout and find a staging area for our other ships to move in."

"Very good Admiral. Men, plot a course for Raxus Prime." Anakin ordered. "I'll check on our guests." _A.K.A., the reasons Grievous is alive, _his mind yelled. He tried to ignore it, he couldn't let emotions cloud his focus, not again.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"Slow down, kid," Rex chuckled, preparing a napkin for her.

Penny looked down at herself. She was so relieved to have food again that she almost hadn't realized that she had shoved an entire scrap of meat in her mouth at once. She took a large portion out her mouth and fed a scrap to Bolt, begging below the table. She blushed as Rex cleaned some of the meat's juices off her face, then looking around to see if none of the other clones in the _Resolute_'s cafeteria were watching. _Great, I must look like such a pig to them._ "Sorry," she said, wiping the rest excess meat off her face. "I just haven't eaten in a while."

"Don't be sorry, just take smaller bites," Rex responded. "Besides, you're not the only one."

Rex shot quick glances at all his men, who in return gave him innocent looks. Penny snickered under her breath as she dropped another meat scrap under the table to Bolt. "So..." she continued, her mouth full. "What are you guys anyway? Brothers?"

"Um, sort of," Rex replied, taking a bite of his own food. "We're clones, , made for the Grand Army of the Republic. Of one man, but the right man for the job"

"How many are there?" Penny inquired, taking a sip of her water.

"About three million," he said flatly.

Penny spit out part of the water in her mouth halfway across the table, then swallowed the rest. "What?" she said, coughing.

"You heard me correctly, kid. Three million of us, made to go out fighting for the Republic. Of course, over ten years that is."

Penny was more confused than ever, "Wait, two questions. One, if you were made ten years ago, then how do you all look so old already?"

"Well," Coric answered. "You see when we were made, of course, we started out as infants. But we were enhanced to be stronger and have more energy than the average human being, _and_ we have accelerated growth. Otherwise we would take a lifetime to grow."

"Alright, so, this isn't really a question, but...you guys were made just to fight in a war? And, yes it's for this Republic, but they send millions of you out there...where you can die?"

Rex sighed, "I know it's hard to believe kid. But we're meant to be expendable."

She pondered it for a moment, then smiled, "Well, not to me," she said.

Rex smiled as well, "Thanks kid. Oh and before I call you kid one more time, what's your name?"

"Oh, right. I guess we haven't established that yet. I'm Penny Hudington, and, of course, this is my dog, Bolt."

She pointed down at the American white shepherd still begging at her side. "Bolt, huh?" Jek, the clone next to her said. "I could've guessed, considering the mark on his side. What is that anyway?"

It was the first time some of the clones had even taken note of it. They all looked at Bolt and saw the thick black mark on his side. "Kid...I mean, Penny, what exactly is that? On his side?" Coric asked.

"Uh..." she stuttered. _Great. What am I going to tell them? My dog has superpowers? I'm going to look like a total idiot!_ "Well...you see, uh. A friend of my dad's thought that it would be...a funny little joke if he put a little temporary tattoo on him, because it fits his name, Bolt."

The clones around her nodded, "Really?" Jek said, running his hand over the mark. "It feels more like a birthmark to me."

Bolt was losing patience with everyone looking at him and touching him as if he was some sort of display. He looked up at Penny who returned a look saying "just go with it". The two could often communicate simply on expressions. Then she turned back to the clones, "Uh, well, you see..."

"Enjoying your stay?" Anakin's voice came from behind.

Penny turned around to see the Jedi approaching. _Saved by...whoever he is._ "Oh, hi. Yes, I uh...am," she stumbled with the words. "Thanks, for the save by the way. And sorry if I got in the way at all.

_Yeah, you did. You have no idea how sorry you should be._ "It's alright, you didn't," Anakin responded, doing his best to smile. "And you're welcome, we're just performing our duty. I imagine Rex here has been telling you some things about it."

"Yes...oh, so that's your name, Rex. I like it," she said, once again unsure of what else she could say.

Rex smiled and nodded in response, then turned to Skywalker, "What are our orders now sir?" he asked.

"Well," he answered, double taking at Bolt who was staring suspiciously back at him. "Uh, well. Of course, we're going to get her home, but first we have to stop at Raxus Prime, there's a variety of metals there that could be useful to us. We won't start right away, but we can confirm the location."

Rex nodded again, took one more bite of his food, placed his helmet back on his head, and went out. Then Anakin turned back to Penny, "I'm sorry you got mixed up in this, kid. Don't worry, we'll have you back home in no time. However, we're going to make a small stop on the way, if you don't mind."

_If I don't mind? I have a say in the matter?_ "No," she hastily responded. "I don't want to interfere with any of your...operations."

_Too late_. "Alright, we'll be underway shortly. In the mean time..." Anakin tried to think of something for her to do. "Well, how about a tour of the ship? See how a real Jedi cruiser operates."

"O-okay," she responded, a small amount of eagerness in her voice.

Anakin smiled, and invited her along with Rex, Plo, and the others, one of which was a girl with red skin growths on her head who couldn't be more than a year older than her. She shyly approached her and walked by her for a couple seconds, until the red girl finally noticed her as they exited the mess hall. "Oh, hi," she said, smiling.

"Hi, I'm...well," Penny responded. "I guess I'm the hostage."

"Yeah, I...I figured. I'm Ahsoka," she said, extending her hand. "Glad to meet you."

Penny smiled and shook her hand. "So...you guys are...Jedi? Correct?"

Ahsoka smiled again, "Yup, guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy."

"So, you're like monks?"

Ahsoka chuckled briefly, remembering her studies of the Bo'amarr monks in the Temple. "Not exactly, we have weapons and fight to _restore_ peace."

"Okay. What exactly disturbed the peace? What are these Separatists?"

Ahsoka sighed, it would take a while.

Ahsoka spent a large part of the tour explaining how the war started and how the clone army was created to help the Galactic Republic. Penny nodded intently when she wasn't staring in fascination at the vastness of the ship. Anakin often added in the details Ahsoka forgot, annoying her. Though she understood he was trying to help, she wished she didn't _interrupt_ her to do it. Eventually, they reached a gunner station, "...And here is one of the lines of defense for this ship," Anakin said, then smiled and received an idea. "Would...you like a shot at it?"

Penny look up surprisingly at him, "Uh...I, well...uh, okay," she stuttered.

She slowly walked up to the heavy guns and took a seat at the station. She experimented with the two handles which moved the gun up, down, left, or right. She giggled like a small child at the display, then nodded to the gunner at the second station who pressed a round button and released a saucer-like module of mechanical skeet into space. She quickly adjusted the guns, took aim, and pressed the firing buttons. She was taken aback by the force of the lasers which narrowly sailed past the saucer of explosives. She sighed as it flew out of sight. "Not bad for a first try," the gunner noted. "But in war, a near miss is still a miss, kid."

"Quite right," Admiral Yularen said as he approached from behind. "We're just about ready general."

"Thank you, Admiral. But hold on," Anakin replied, gesturing to Penny. "She's only had one try."

"Yes, but I doubt, in battle, the Separatists will offer more," he said, almost sounding impatient.

Penny sighed and started to step down when Anakin raised his mechanical hand. "Yes...but we're not the Seppies, are we?" he briefly winked at Penny. "Launch another, sergeant."

The clone gunner nodded and launched another as Yularen turned to Anakin who spoke before he did, "Admiral, remember she's not a soldier. She barely even knows what's going on."

"I know general. That's not what I meant by that," the Admiral chuckled. "Although she's quite ambitious, very brave for a girl of her age."

Anakin smiled back as the bolts of blaster fire from Penny's turrent partially hit the mechanical saucer. "Better," the gunner noted. "You just nicked the side. Let's try one more."

It was true, she hijacked a Separatist shuttle, that's something not many children of her age could do. And she escaped the ship at all. _Impressive. But how did she take out those droids? Maybe it wasn't her._ He was unsure. There was something about the dog, what was that mark on his side? He also felt the dog was slightly overly protective. Glaring at anyone who got too close. It was like it had a job of protecting her. Though he loosened up to watch Penny as she fired a single shot into space destroying the saucer with it. "Hey, hey! Nice shot kid," the gunner chuckled.

"Nice work," Anakin said, turning to leave. "Now let's get going. The war won't end itself." The group proceeded to the turbolift and Anakin turned back to Penny "Coming, kid?"

Penny gasped sharply, "You-you want me there?" she inquired.

"Only if you want to come," Anakin responded entering the lift.

She giggled again and followed with Bolt close behind as usual, still unsure about her new allies. He wished he could tell Penny what he thought, _Penny, how do you know you can trust these people? For all we know they could be working for the green-eyed man. They didn't save us we were perfectly capable of saving our selves!_ Though his thoughts didn't make a difference, he still trudged along behind her, remembering his sacred duty of protecting her. Though he still sensed something wasn't right, being with these new people. He didn't realize he would soon find out. They all would.


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The beautiful streaks of a Coruscant sunset were something that not even Palpatine could resist to see. He watched the lines of air traffic moved along neatly against the golden rays of sunlight from the vast transparisteel window in his office. _An entire Republic, unaware that their enemy is leading them,_ he thought. _Amusing, really._ Then he turned back to his five guests, Bail Organa, Padmé Amidala, Mon Mothma, Mace Windu, and Yoda. Alongside his trusted advisor, Mas Amedda. He smirked on the inside, _Not even their most powerful Jedi can sense it. Perhaps if they weren't so engulfed in politics..._ Palpatine broke out of his line of thought and returned to his current conversation. "Deep thought, you are in, Chancellor?" Yoda spoke up after a half a minute of silence.

Palpatine smiled back at him. "Yes," he said softly. "Just thinking of how a monster like Grievous is able to elude us for so long." Actually, he wasn't at all surprised that Grievous got away. The girl was a simple test on how well the general could do with hostages. If he succeeded, Palpatine would know how long he could stay around, if he failed but still managed to escape, Dooku could continue improve him. And if the Jedi defeated him, it wouldn't be of concern, he would have proved himself useless anyway, and he still had Dooku and his puppet, Ventress.

"Indeed," Mace said, scratching his chin. "He hides behind his toys, and flees before we can clear all of them out. And he _still_ manages to take Jedi with him."

"I am truly sorry, my friends," he said, doing his best to sound sympathetic. "I only wish I could do more about it, I sit here and practically watch this monster eat away at the Republic without doing anything about it."

"You've done as much as can about this, Chancellor," Bail noted. "And it's been more than enough. You've managed to continue to lead and support those in need in a time of crisis. Something a lesser man couldn't even comprehend."

"Indeed, sir," Mas Amedda added. "You yourself have saved entire systems from starvation."

"As I watched others die at the hands of Grievous and the Separatists!" he rebuked. "Innocents and Jedi, alike."

"Chancellor," Padmé said softly. "You aren't alone here. There are still those who wish to help you in saving lives. Ana...the Jedi, have been working tirelessly to continue to save lives and keep the Republic together. Master Windu, didn't general Skywalker's report say that they rescued the innocent hostages?"

Mace nodded, "Yes, Skywalker and Master Plo saved the two that Grievous mistook for Republic intelligence agents. Yes, it was at the cost of Grievous escaping again, but at least no one was killed."

"I regret I can do nothing more, but lead."

"It's more than enough for now," Mothma said, smiling.

"Thank you, and you're right senator Amidala, I am never truly alone, I do have those who support me, like yourselves. And the Jedi, and I will ensure that I will do everything in my power to repay that."

"Our thanks, Chancellor," Yoda replied. "Now, en route, is young Skywalker?"

"Yes," Mace said. "He said he, master Plo, and his padawan would set out to Raxus Prime as soon as possible."

"Finally, we know something the Separatists don't," Bail said, smirking. "Lately, it has seemed like the Separatists know our every move, the location of our every fleet, every battle group."

"Quite right. I wonder if the Separatists have some sort of secret tracking station where they can intercept all of our communications," Padmé added.

"If so, that is. Find it and destroy it, we _must_," Yoda said.

"I agree," Palpatine said. "If such a station exists, then I may not be able to risk sending a battle group to Falleen. I'd hate to lose even a single more Jedi, let alone eight."

"I don't like any more Chancellor, but, with respect, I fear we have no choice. We must secure Fallen, or at least try."

Yoda grunted and tapped his gimmer stick on the floor," "Do. Or do not, master Windu. There is..."

"There is no try," Mace finished. "I know that master Yoda, but it's at least worth an effort. Even with eight Jedi." Eight Jedi at risk. Eight friends at risk. Eventually, eight friends to mourn. "And, again Chancellor, we have no other choice."

Palpatine sighed, sliding back into his chair, "Very well, my friends. You may dispatch them when ready." He actually didn't mind risking Jedi lives. "Let us hope, at least Skywalker's mission is beneficial."

Hope was the best they could do.


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"Are we all set Admiral?" Anakin asked, as he, Ahsoka, Plo, and Penny entered the bridge.

"Yes sir," Yularen responded. "Ready to jump to Raxus on your orders."

"Very well, let's get going then. Ahead full."

The crew quickly went to work on the many consoles of the ship preparing the sublight engines and hyperdrive as they walked up to the front of the command bridge. Penny gazed across the ship's vast frontal section from the large window in fascination. Anakin grinned, remembering the first time he set foot on a starcruiser. The sleek Naboo royal starcruiser that took to Coruscant for his Jedi training. He also remembered how he felt on his first lightspeed jump...oh, yes of course. In his line of thought he had almost forgotten to notice the jump into the hyperspace dimension. As the ship jumped, he peered back down at Penny who had stiffened up and staggered back a bit at the sudden rush. Anakin chuckled and briefly placed his hand on her shoulder, "You get use to it after a while," he said reassuringly.

Penny struggled to find words, "What...what exactly...is this?"

"This? Oh, well, you see we're now moving at the speed of light, so this is the dimension that we enter when we jump to the speed of the light."

"General," Yularen said, walking up from behind. "We should be at our destination in approximately thirty standard minutes."

"Good Admiral. Rex? Why don't you finish the tour of the _Resolute_ with her? I'll be here if you need me."

Rex nodded, "Yes sir," he said. "Come on kid. I may even be able to find you temporary quarters...uh, you know, a room, to stay in...for now."

She could tell he was having trouble speaking to a child, so she nodded and followed him back out the door. Though he wasn't going to be there, he had other things to do, Ahsoka required major improvement on her lightsaber training, nothing new there, also, there was Padmé. He hadn't seen her, or even sent her a message for almost a standard month now. So, with that he left the bridge to his quarters, where he composed a small, private message allowing her to know he was alright and he missed her as usual. "Hey, Skyguy?" Ahsoka's voice came from behind just as he cut off the transmission.

Anakin nearly leapt off the floor when he spun around to see his teenage padawan standing in the doorway, he sighed briefly as he said, "What is it, snips? And I told you, don't call me that!"

"Sorry Sky...master," she apologized. "I was just wondering, if we were still doing that practice session."

"Oh, right. Get the training remote and I'll meet you down there."

She nodded and left, Anakin rose and looked at his personal holo-comlink and thought of his wife, then of Penny. _The sooner we get them out of this, the better._

Anakin sat on a crate in the main hanger as he watched the training remote whir around Ahsoka, who had her eyes closed but was still effectively dodging the training bolts. "Master, I still don't understand," she said, deflecting yet another training bolt.

"Well, remember what master Yoda says, 'Your eyes can deceive you, you can't always trust them.'"

"No, it's not that," she said, deactivating her lightsaber and opening her eyes, allowing the training remote to sail upward into its standby position. "I still don't understand how Grievous could have found those two. I mean, it's an average girl and an average dog, on a planet nearly standard centuries behind our technology. How did Grievous even find the planet?"

"I don't know snips," Anakin replied, scratching his chin. "I think…there may be something about this dog. He's been really alert when he's around her. In fact I don't think there's been a time where he hasn't been around her. I wonder if he's protecting her from something. But what...?"

"General," said Yularen who was standing nearby. "I've received word that we are ready to revert to realspace and send a scouting party to Raxus. I assume you are going to lead it?"

"You assume correctly, Admiral. I'll take Torrent company down with me to search for these metals."

"I shall come along," Plo's voice came from behind. "It's been a while since I've been to Raxus Prime. I would very much like to see the trash heap once more."

Anakin smirked, "There's not much to see, master. But any help is welcome."

"Do you think we should take the girl along?" Plo asked.

Anakin froze for a moment, he had already thought of this. She would have nothing else to do, but she might even be more uninterested if she went along. Then again, it's a twelve year-old girl, she's bound to be interested in a new planet. _May as well_. "Uh…alright. Sure, when will be prepared to leave?"

Rex who was standing beside them spoke first, "The men are set, the _Twilight_'s been loaded, we're ready to depart as soon as we enter orbit sir."

Anakin could tell Rex had a proud smile on his face, he was eager to put his new men to the test. He had lost nearly all of Torrent company back on Teth, neither of them couldn't and wouldn't allow that many casualties in one battle again. "Alright, get the kid and some of the members of Wolfpack too." Anakin ordered. "We leave as soon as we're in orbit."

Rex nodded obediently and walked away, as did Yularen leaving Plo with the two. "We don't have much time before the Separatists realize what we're up to," he noted.

"Agreed," Anakin replied, turning back to his padawan. "Ahsoka, get to the _Twilight_, get Artoo, and make sure we're all set."

You got it Skyguy," she responded cheerily.

"Okay...what? Hey, _snips!_ I told you..." Anakin sighed as she had already pranced away. _Not to call me Skyguy._ _At least, when no one else is around._

He heard Plo chuckle from behind him, "I'll admit, she's quite a handful, Skywalker. But it's all part of training a padawan."

"Yes, of course master," Anakin grunted. _It's almost not worth it_.

* * *

"...So we'll do a brief search of the planet for the location, and then we'll get you home," Plo finished explaining to Penny as they approached the _Twilight_.

Penny nodded intently, then shifted her gaze to the ship before her, "_This_ is the ship?" she asked, trying not to sound ungrateful.

"_Yes_," Anakin replied curtly. "It may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts. Plus there's a lot of special modifications I've made."

"Um...alright. Okay, so when exactly do we...you know?"

"As soon as we get on board," Anakin answered. "Rex, are we ready?"

"Affirmative sir," he replied, saluting him.

"Let's get moving boys!" Anakin ordered, as he walked up the boarding ramp.

The others hastily followed, as Penny waited until everyone else boarded to make it easier on Bolt, so he wouldn't have to constantly be on the alert. She could tell he didn't trust their new allies, she bent down and scratched his ear, and reminded him once again they were only trying to help. "Coming kid?" Rex inquired, at the top of the ramp.

"Oh, yes, I am," Penny rose from her spot and jogged up the ramp, Bolt ran up to the top before her to ensure nothing happened. He glared briefly at Rex, who glanced back at him and tried to smile, "Is your dog...normally friendly?"

"Yes he is," she said, quickly. "He's just a little insecure with the new environment. He's sort of...protective of me."

Rex nodded and walked to the bridge. They passed through the passenger compartment, seeing clone troopers occupying the multiple seats, some with blue stripes and others with more detailed armor, maroon stripes that formed the Republic emblem and black markings on their helmets that appeared to be a wolf. She took her seat next to the door that lead to the bridge, when Anakin entered and looked at her, "You can sit up here...if you want, that is," he invited.

"Sure," Penny responded eagerly, placing Bolt on her seat and ordering him to stay.

Anakin smiled and turned back to the bridge Penny right behind him. She was once again fascinated by the bridge and all the different mechanisms, also noting the small, cylindrical droid in the back, plugged into something, it was like being in the cockpit of an airplane. Rex offered her one of the side seats. She sat in the chair, admiring their treatment of her. Of course, though, it couldn't last, she still had to return to Earth and stop Calico. She hadn't forgotten about her father, and wouldn't. Then she heard the static of a comlink, then a clone voice informing them they were clear to launch. Anakin and Ahsoka pressed a large number of buttons in their pilot seats and the ship rose of the hanger floor. Penny stiffened up, feeling unsafe in the chair without a belt. The ship went through the atmospheric containment shield and went off towards the smoggy wasteland of a planet. She became less nervous and more excited at the flight. "Where should we start?" Ahsoka asked as they rapidly approached the planet

"Mines are a good start," Plo answered.

"Artoo, pinpoint the nearest Raxian mine," Anakin said, without looking back.

The droid chirped happily and began scanning the vast junk landscape. Within minutes they had flown through the atmosphere and were approaching their destination. "We should arrive at the area in about five standard minutes," Rex informed from the opposite side of the bridge.

"Alright, Anakin said. "Prepare for landing Ahsoka. Let's hope the Separatists don't..."

Suddenly the entire room was filled with a bright red light and the ship lurched violently, knocking Penny out of her chair. _"WE'VE BEEN HIT!_" Rex shouted.

Hit? Great. Simply wonderful. _But who?_ Anakin pondered. _There aren't that many locals, and the ones that are there aren't _this_ territorial. Unless..._ The Separatists. It was the only explanation. _But how?_ _They've gotta have some sort of tracking station_. Meanwhile, Penny struggled to resume her position until she felt Rex's plated arms wrap around her and pull her back into her seat, then he wrapped the seat belt she hadn't seen around her waist. "Hold on tight, kid!" he ordered, placing his helmet on his head, as he shot out the door.

She clutched her seat as the ship continued to shake, hoping Bolt was secure. She just closed her eyes and waited for it to be over, hearing the shouts of the clones and Anakin. "Artoo! Try and stabilize it!"

"It's no use!" Ahsoka shouted. "The starboard engines are completely _gone_!"

"We're losing control!"

"Divert all power to emergency thrusters!"

"They're gone too!"

"Snips, I mean kriffing _repulsorlifts_! _Anything_ we can use to slow us down!"

"It's too late Skywalker!"

"_Brace for impact!"_

Then, Penny dared to open her eyes and look out the front window. She saw a large mountain of metal coming closer and closer to them, then she noticed the crash positions Anakin and Ahsoka were taking. The mountain was right in front of them. She closed her eyes once more as the ship lurched more violently than ever. The belt snapped and she was thrown from her seat halfway across the bridge as was the rest of them. She tried to pick herself up, only to be thrown back against the wall. The glass of the viewport shattered as the cockpit seemed to be imploding. "Bolt!" she tried to scream before being slammed against the ceiling.

Then all went black.


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Everything was dark. Penny opened her eyes. Not too much of a change. She allowed her eyes to adjust to the light, or what little amount was leaking in. Her head was throbbing more than ever, but she could make out the ruins of the bridge, the front pilots seats were pushed in by the heap of metal. Other areas of the ceiling and walls had been dented inward also, exposing much of the electrical wiring. While other pieces of metal, too damaged to make out what they were anymore, were scattered across what was left of the floor. Penny herself was against a small hunk of metal to her left with her back to the wall. Then she weakly peered over to her right, her right arm was pinned to the wall by the chair she was originally sitting in. She took a better look and realized the ship was partially on its side, and she was pinned to the wall. She tried to lift the chair from her arm, only to find extreme pain shoot through it in an instant. She faintly cried out from the sudden, but extreme pain. She turned her gaze back to the ruin of the cockpit, to see a helmet with dual Jaig eyes on top pop up from behind one of the chunks. "_Kid_!" he said as he dropping whatever he was doing, and rushed over to her.

He removed his helmet to reveal a worried face as knelt down beside her, scanning her over her for and wounds. _Stang_. He encountered his one of his worst fears for the mission. The kid was hurt. He saw the chair she had been sitting in pinning half of her arm against the wall, blood trickling down the sleeve and onto the floor. "Kid," he asked, doing his best not to sound as worried as he was. "Are you alright?" _Stupid question, Rex_. But he had to know. "Where does it hurt?"

Penny weakly gestured to her injured arm, "About up to here, really bad," she responded, pointing to the free half up to where the chair lay. "I can't feel the rest. Except for my head."

Rex noted the area of her fire-red hair that was blood red instead. "Okay, just hang on," he said, slowly lifting the seat of her, and trying to get her on her feet. "Can you stand? We had better get that arm looked at."

She slowly stood from her place and staggered into Rex, who was supporting her. She continued to whimper from her wound, "Don't touch it," she warned.

"It's okay, I won't. I just want to see it," Rex said getting a better glance at the damaged limb. "Kix! Get back here!"

Penny's head throbbed from the noise as Rex guided her out of the room into the almost equally damaged passenger hold, where he placed her on the original seat was sitting in. That's when she remembered Bolt. "Wait," she said, suddenly frantic. "Where's Bolt? My dog, where is he?"

"Take it easy kid," Rex said as Kix entered the barely lit hold. "When...we crashed, your dog...um, he rolled to the back. And..." _Stang! Why do I have to be the one to tell her?_ "He went back to the cargo hold and...when we checked it was totaled, so...I'm sorry, I don't think he made it."

Penny froze up, completely ignoring the sharp pain that came from her arm as Kix, the new team medic was patching it up. There was a greater pain. Tears began to form in her eyes, "No..." she whispered. "He can't..."

The two clones sighed, "I'm sorry kid," Rex said. "I really am."

Kix had finished her arm, injected a small amount of pain reliever in her neck and was dabbing her blood stained hair with small sponge. Then he placed his hand on her shoulder and said, "Here, I'm almost done, we can go check again."

Penny slowly stood and followed him to the back of the ship, she looked over the ruined cargo bay. Hopes of seeing her best friend again fading with every second, "Bolt?" she whispered.

Suddenly, a large chunk of metal shifted, a small glimmer of hope entered Penny's heart. The piece jumped up, then again higher. Kix hastily ran towards it and began moving other pieces out of the way, until he reached the jumping metal. He shifted one single chunk, and Bolt came tumbling out onto the floor. Penny cried out in pure joy as she ran towards her companion, who was dazed, but unscathed. She carefully wrapped her good arm around him, now crying tears of joy, "I thought I lost you, boy," she whispered, clinging him in her arm.

Kix grinned, "Glad to see he's okay," he said. "But, how did he survive? He was nearly crushed and more importantly he does even have a scratch? It's not that I'm not grateful but...how, exactly?"

Penny looked up at him and tried to think of anything as a cover up, when she heard Skywalker's voice from outside, calling for Rex. Penny stood up and went back to the door, "It's complicated," she told him, as she exited the cargo bay.

Bolt closely followed as usual, glaring at Rex as they proceeded out. Penny was hurt, and it was their fault. Rex nudged Penny at this, she looked back at him, "Oh, it's okay," she said as she continued towards the exit. Then she knelt down beside him and said, "Bolt, it's okay. This crash wasn't their fault, and..." She softly stroked his head. "I'm fine. Just...relax."

Relax? Relax she said. How could he relax if she's getting hurt? Bolt tried to set the thoughts aside as Penny found a crack in the hull that lead outside. She carefully slipped through and surveyed the bleak landscape, nothing but piles of steel and ruined ships. _Great. A landfill. This should be fun._ Then she spotted rest of the clones with Anakin, who were also looking over the barren wasteland. She carefully made her way over to their position. "Hey...um," she called, trying to recall his name. _It was Sky...Sky something, Sky-killer? No. Walker..._ "Hey, uh general...Skywalker!"

Anakin turned to the sound of her voice and quickly ran over to her, "Hey, kid," he said in relieve. "Glad to see you're okay, or in one piece, anyway."

He noted her blood stained bandage and sleeve, "So am I," she responded, realizing she was hobbling slightly. "I think I'm just a little shaken up. I just have a headache, and I can't feel my right hand."

She held up her slightly pale hand, which instantly sent another sharp pain through her arm. She pulled it back, making sure she didn't look like she was in too much pain. Anakin winced and sighed, "I'm really sorry about this. Don't worry, we'll get you home," he said apologetically, then he turned back to the clones. "Sergeant Coric, any luck repairing the transmitter?"

The clone shook his head, "Negative, sir."

He sighed, _Great. Ten whole standard hours before Yularen begins to suspect something happened._ It didn't need to get any more difficult. "Well," Anakin started. "I guess our best chance is to head for one of those mines. Maybe the locals have some sort of transmitter we can use."

"There are _locals_ on this trash heap?" Ahsoka asked surprisingly.

"Mainly just Jawa and Rodian scavengers, trying to make a few quick credits of what can be salvaged."

"Think they'll let us use anything?"

"Maybe if we ask nicely, sir," Rex noted.

Anakin smiled, "Got everything we can use from the ship Rex?"

"Yes sir," he responded, holding up a loaded backpack. "Rations, weapons, and anything else that could help us off this Godforsaken rock."

"Alright, let's get moving. And hope the Separatists don't search for survivors. Artoo, search for any life forms...or droids."

The astromech beeped twice and he began walking across the desolate landscape, the clones and Penny following behind. Plo saw Penny's condition and approached her. _I'm fine. Trust me, I've been through worse, I'm fine!_ She hoped they wouldn't be too concerned about her. Bolt was already concerned enough, "It's okay, I'm fine," she assured as Plo came up to her.

"It's not that," he said, as he quickly held out his arm to stop her from falling into a small ditch. "It's that."

He redirected her onto a stable pathway. She simply thanked him, kept walking and noted Rex's backpack. She then remembered her own backpack and how she left it back at the hospital. _Great_. Now all she had was her phone, and she doubted she could use it to contact the cruiser, Bolt, the large amount of cash her father had left her (once again, wouldn't come in handy), a miniature tracking device and her monocle. Oh, that's right. The voice-activated scanning monocle that was originally built into her scooter helmet. Though she removed knowing it could help elsewhere. She smiled at the memory when she presented the design to Mark when he was working at home, and how excited she was when he told her he could actually make it a reality. A small tear entered her eye at the memory of her father. Then she looked down at Bolt who had noticed, she smiled and patted his head. She had to focus on getting back to Earth, more specifically to her father. She looked back up into the smoggy atmosphere and saw the clone she had sat next to in the mess hall, Jek. He was looking through a pair electrobinoculars, then he turned back to Anakin and shouted, "General! There's something you should see!" his voice sounding urgent.


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Their worst fears had been realized. The Separatists were already there. And Grievous looked worse through binoculars, this was the first time Anakin had seen him. _He's shorter than I expected_. It only got worse. "Uh, general?" Penny's voice came from behind. Anakin turned and looked at her, she had her gaze fixed on the half mile tall antenna like structure that was in front of them. "What exactly is...that?"

_A weapon._ There was not a single doubt about it. A large antenna with trenches of battle droids at their computer stations, and Grievous himself overseeing the operation. He would normally be excited. However, this time, things were different. They were the ones who were outnumbered, they were at the location were Grievous hides behind his armies. A direct assault would be suicide. Once again, no doubt about it. Anakin rose from his crouched position and returned back down to the area where they had stopped. "A weapon kid," he said, returning the binoculars back to Jek and looking back up at it, still visible from their location. "A massive one might I add."

"Well, I can see that," she noted. "What does it do? It looks more like a frequency tower than a weapon."

Rex raised an eyebrow at this, "Sir, do you think this is the tracking station we've been looking for?" he said, eyes widening.

Anakin thought for a moment, _Why else would Grievous be here? It might be a weapon, if so it has to be bad if it's this big. Then again, "Size matters not." Or it could be the tracking station that's been destroying our battle groups. Either way, it has to go._ "Alright men," he said finally. "Let's get a closer look. Master Plo, you and Wolfpack stay here, Torrent company, Rex, Ahsoka, and I will investigate this."

The Jedi master nodded and returned to his bored squad of clones. "Can I...come?" Penny asked nervously.

"Well, uh, you see..." Anakin said, looking over at his padawan, who shrugged. _What can it hurt? She has nothing better to do. It's still a wartime, she can wait._ "Um, sure. Why...not?"

She smiled and called Bolt, who faithfully ran to her side. "Alright, keep quiet and follow me."

He ran off against the scrap metal wall which concealed them. Rex gestured to the other men as he followed crouched down. She followed in the same manner. _It's like Calico all over again_. She shook the thought from her head and focused on the current situation. _I just need to get off this rock, and considering they're not leaving until this thing is gone..._ "Okay Bolt," she said, rubbing her eyes. "Let's just do this."

Then she hadn't realized were she was going and bumped right into Jek, who immediately covered he mouth before she could apologize. He hushed her as he looked back out an opening in the scrap. She peered through it also, noticing the entire squad had taken cover. She looked out to see three or four droids right in front of them, not having noticed them. Bolt growled deeply. Penny gasped sharply and placed her hand over his muzzle. She looked over to Anakin who had his lightsaber in his hand. He was making different hand signals to his men, who nodded in response and pulled out what appeared to be grenades. Penny became slightly nervous. _Won't they destroy us too?_ Apparently not, as they already activated them and rolled them in front of the droids.

They had little time to react before an electro shockwave went through the air. Causing the droids to shake violently, then fall to the ground. That was it? Penny sighed in relief as the others stood and looked out across the droid infested area. "Artoo," Anakin said, without looking away. "Start up your scanners. See if you can make out what that thing is."

The astromech beeped once and a small antenna rose from the top of his dome. Penny also looked out at the large structure, stared at it for a moment, then reached into her pocket and pulled out a small monocle. "What is that?" Rex asked when he saw it.

"Just wait," she responded, activating the controls and placing a wire around her ear to hold it in place. It dropped down in front of her eye with small words across the screen.

_Awaiting voice command._

"Analyze," she ordered looking up at the tower.

The screen started to scan the tower and a small box appeared within a few moments.

_Large laser cannon. Ammunitions unknown. Enough to cause 5.0 magnitude earthquake. With blast radius of up to 100 square kilometers at maximum firepower._

"I think you should see this general," Penny called.

Anakin looked up from Grievous through his binoculars and saw the piece of glass in front of her eye. "What do you have there, kid?" he asked as he approached her.

"Look through this," she said, and held it out for him.

He obeyed and read the words on the screen, his eyes widening. "So it is a weapon, but..." he trailed off. "Would this work...in space?" The answer came onto the screen instantly.

_Affirmative._

"Then it's clear then," he said handing it to Ahsoka. "They're building this weapon, so they can take out our fleets without even getting their ships dirty. The blast from the ray will destroy each individual cruiser."

"Do you think they built it here because they found those metals, and they knew we would come to get them, so..." she stopped for a moment. "so they could use your ships as a test?"

Anakin nodded sadly, "You catch on pretty quick kid. We have to destroy that thing before it can be used on our ships, or we'll never get off this rock."

"Understood sir," Rex said, turning to his men. "All right grunts. If the Seppies win this, they'll be closer to winning the war. So what are we going to do?" He didn't wait for a response. "We are going to destroy that thing, _and_ the head clanker, and show them that Torrent company means business. Understood?"

"_Sir, yes sir!_" they responded in unison.

Penny smiled at their loyalty. She was up to a challenge, regardless of Bolt's concern. "What's the plan? I bet I could help" Bolt glared up at her, not wanting her to get involved.

Anakin smiled her eagerness, "Well, I bet you could be of some help. Artoo give us a layout of the area." The droid chirped loudly and displayed a hologram of their position. Anakin started pointing in different locations. "Alright, we can have General Plo and Wolfpack stall the droids here. While we head over here, where, hopefully, the numbers aren't as thick." Hope he said. Ahsoka rolled her eyes. There was no other option. "We sabotage the weapon, and if we get lucky. We catch Grievous by surprise, capture or destroy him, and bring this war closer to an end."

"But master Kenobi says there's no such thing as luck," Ahsoka noted, smiling.

"Well, Obi-Wan isn't here, is he?" he snapped back.

Fine. Bark at a simple question. "Okay, okay. Let's just hope our men can hold out against whatever Grievous might have."

Rex smiled slyly. "Torrent company's ready for anything sir."

She smiled back, "Good. Just as long as, in advance, we aren't..." She froze up, her gaze locked on a certain direction. They all turned to the direction, just in time to see a single battle droid run back to his squad. "...spotted."


	14. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"That's bad, isn't it?" Penny asked after a few moments of silence.

It seemed the rare moments of silence in the war were the most terrifying. Anakin ignored it, "Come on," he shouted hastily. "We can't let him report us! Jam his signal!"

One of the clones pressed a button on his comlink, then followed the rest of them. "Master, _wait_!" Ahsoka cried, but they had already followed him over the ridge. "He might have...company."

Penny ran up next to her, "At least I'm not the only one who thinks this is a bad idea."

Ahsoka smiled, then ran after him, "He never listens."

Penny began to run after them, but Bolt grabbed her by her heel. She looked back at him, he had a firm grip on her shoe with a half concerned, half worried expression on his face. _No Penny, just stay here. They can handle it, you have to stay safe._ She bent down and pushed him off her. "Bolt it's fine," she reassured. "They may need my help."

_How can you help? I was given the job of protecting you! I'm the one who has to look after you. Not these people!_ But Penny couldn't understand. She ran off in the direction of the droids. _No Penny! NO!_ He ran as fast as he could as he watched Penny vanish over the rise. He practically leaped over to where he saw her crouched behind part of what use to be a speeder engine. Then he saw why. He narrowly avoided the hot, scattered bolts of blaster fire which came flying towards him. He quickly bounded over to where Penny had taken shelter, she quickly wrapped her arms around him. She was afraid. Bolt carefully looked out from where they were hidden, taking note of the laser bolts whizzing past him. He saw the clones crouched in different hiding positions. One of them was lying on the ground, a black blast mark in his chest. The Jedi were up front, both swiftly deflecting the fire, he could see at least nine of them, or nine remaining. The fortunate ones who hadn't been shot or sliced. Another bolt narrowly missed him as he ducked behind his cover again, close by Penny. The clones fired wildly, doing their part to cut the droids down, Penny covered her ears at the loud shots and closed her eyes, waiting for it to be over. Anakin was chopping his way through the droids with ease, slightly concerned by Ahsoka's saber techniques, but more concerned and angry that they had already lost someone of Torrent company. _It was a kriffing shiny. His first battle and he's killed._ It wasn't the first time. He remembered all the troops on Geonosis, it was their first time deployed and almost a quarter of them were killed or seriously injured. "Rex," he said after performing a vertical cut on the last super battle droid. "Who did we lose this time?"

"Vin sir," Rex replied, removing his helmet as he walked over to Penny.

_Vin? He wasn't a shiny. He wasn't on Teth either. Not in the battle anyway._ It didn't make too much of a difference, one of his men was dead. He looked over to where Penny was. She was slowly standing from her hiding place, Bolt loyally at her side. _Poor kid. At least she survived._ She looked up at him, "You...uh, realize that when these guys don't report in, those other guys will be suspicious," she said.

"You're right Penny," he responded. "We don't have much time before that happens. Get Vin out of here. We have to get back and tell master Plo about our attack, we'll need all the troops we can get. Let's just hope they don't send out any more scouting parties."

The clones nodded and pulled the body of white armor away from the scene. Penny sighed, she felt it was her fault they were in this. It was her fault that trooper was dead. Bolt could tell what she was thinking. He brushed alongside her leg. She looked down and laid her arm around him, "How are we going to get out of this Bolt?" she said, holding him close.

He licked her cheek reassuringly. She giggled, "Yeah, you're my good..."

"_GENERAL_!" one of the clones shouted. "I think we may need more troopers sir!"

_Oh great, one problem after another_. Anakin and Ahsoka shot a look at each other. "And why is that trooper?" Anakin asked, cautiously approaching where the trooper was sitting.

Then he saw why.

Row after row of battle droids marching directly towards them. Battle droids, super battle droids, destroyers, tanks, even the security droids they had seen on Christophsis. Twenty at least of each kind. "Master?" Ahsoka said. "Do they know we're here?"

He looked down and saw the commander with binoculars pointing frantically in their direction. "They do now," he sighed, then looked further out to see a droid base. They were already there. They were there all along. "They probably found out about this place just as out Intel agents did."

"Now what?" Ahsoka asked gloomily.

"We await our horrible demise?" one of the rookies asked, receiving an agitated glare from Rex. "What?"

Penny looked out, despair entering her heart. She would die on this planet, she had failed her father. She would never rescue him. She and Bolt would both..._Wait!_ She had faced off against more than this. And she remembered what she did when it was like this. She cursed her own stupidity for giving up so easily and looked down at Bolt who was staring back at her with a serious look. "Bolt," she said boldly. "Speak."

Bolt smiled. _Finally._ He walked ahead of the group and placed his front right paw forward, and his back right back for balance. "What's he doing?" Rex asked, then chuckled sadly. "Does he really think he can...?"

Bolt growled deeply, then through his head forward releasing a giant ground shaking bark, sending the numerous layers of dust and debris flying through the air. Anakin, Ahsoka, and the clones stumbled back and covered their ears at the sudden burst. The blast ripped through the metal landscape approaching the droids at a rapid rate. Ahsoka looked up to see the blast throw the droids off the ground like leaves in the wind, sending them and the tanks hurling threw the air back into the base they came from, a small explosion for each impact. Within seconds, the base was consumed by a raging inferno. Bolt smiled mischievously and walked back to Penny's side, Penny looked back to the shaken clones and Jedi, who returned awestruck and confused looks. She smiled nervously and said, "I guess I have some explaining to do, huh?"

* * *

"General sir!" a droid voice called out from one the control trenches.

"What was that?" Grievous growled angrily. "There are no ground quakes on this rock!"

"No sir, I don't what it was. But I've lost all contact with our base."

Grievous nearly punched the droid as he spun around back to his post next to a battle droid commander. "I told you we should have checked for survivors with that ship!" the general snarled.

"What?" the droid responded innocently. "It wasn't my fault you didn't..."

Grievous then proceeded to punch the droid, who went sailing across the control station. "General," Dooku's voice came from behind. "As I recall, that freighter belonged to Skywalker. You must not allow him to destroy it, or send word to the Republic."

Grievous thought for a moment. "Skywalker will never be able to take me, or this weapon. His numbers are thin, and we still have hundreds on this planet."

"Really?" Dooku said, raising an eyebrow. "Because one of your droids just informed me that your base has been almost nearly destroyed."

Grievous stuttered for a moment, "Uh, well...he will _still_ be unable to destroy this weapon in time..."

"General," the count interrupted. "Do not underestimate him."

"Of course sir."

"And general," he continued. "Do not overestimate yourself."


	15. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Penny was nearly out of breath when they returned to Plo and his men, explaining how her father had genetically altered Bolt, before being kidnapped, to protect her so she could protect the world from Calico, which was partially how she was caught in the war. Plo stood as they arrived and noted the lifeless body of a clone being carried. "What happened?" he asked with much concern. "We heard that explosion. What was that?"

Anakin looked down and sighed, "Long story master," he replied. "But we don't have time right now. I have a plan to take down that weapon. And hopefully along with it, Grievous."

So he explained his plan once more to the troops of Wolfpack as Penny sat down beside Rex who was staring at the body of the fallen trooper. She placed her hand on his, "I...I'm sorry," she said. "It's probably, it's...it's..."

"It's _not_ your fault kid," Rex said suddenly. "If that was what you were going to say."

Penny sighed after a moment, and buried her face and her hands, rubbing her eyes. Bolt came up to her and nudged her, sensing her worry. _It's okay Penny, it'll be alright_. She looked up and smiled, "Thanks boy," she said, scratching his ear.

"It's okay kid," Rex said to her. "We'll get you out of this. Okay? For now, get some rest."

Penny looked out to the horizon seeing the sun through the smog was already half below the surface. Then she glanced at her watch, five fourteen PM, Earth time. Though she had missed a good night's rest when she was taken from the hospital. She noticed Anakin had finished going through the battle plan with the others and was speaking to Plo about the details, then looked around and noticed a small cave formed out of the interior of a small freighter. She informed Rex where she was going, and walked into what use to be the vessel's private quarters. There she found a large, soft pillow and reclined on it on the cold, hard, metal floor. Seeing the other clones taking shelter in other parts of the heap. One standing guard by the entry way, Coric. Penny looked up at him briefly, _I don't need a chaperone._ But at least he was concerned.

Bolt came up next to her and noticed the small amount of tears coming down her cheeks. She was afraid. Instantly sensing this he put his head under her arm and lied next to her. She smiled, she was afraid she wouldn't be able to sleep in the new environment, but she could always sleep with Bolt at her side. It was the reason she could sleep at all when on the run from Calico. It had been almost half of a year now since she had received the distressing phone call from her father. Though gradually dozing off, she pulled out her phone and decided to listen to it once more, as she had done this in the past in case she wanted to get a better grasp on things, or if she just wanted to hear his voice again. Penny searched through the messages and calls and found it in no time. Though she wondered if it would just make her even more sad or confused. Bolt was thinking the same. But, regardless, she hit the call button and held the phone to her ear.

_"Hello?" she said._

_Heavy panting came from the other side. __"Penny!"__ Mark's voice cried. __"Penny listen to me."_

_"Dad, what's wrong with Bolt? He's been acting weird ever since you..."_

"_Please, Penny, just listen! I don't have much time."_

She remembered how upset she was when Bolt had been acting strangely after he was altered, and she had no idea what it was.

_Mark's sudden interruption startled Penny. He sounded desperate. "Daddy? Are...are you okay?"_

_"No! Not exactly. Just listen, I have to tell you something...the truth."_

_"What do you mean?" she stuttered, slightly scared now. _

_"Well...something's come up at work, honey. I don't...daddy's not going to be coming home for a while."_

_ "Dad...what...?"_

"_Don't talk! Just listen!" Mark's continuous interruptions were scaring her more and more. "I had to alter Bolt. My boss, Calico told me to. But he's going to use it to take over the world. And now he's after me for it.__ And he__ will come after you, Penny! All my files are on your phone now. You have to run and hide from him. You can't go back to the house Penny. O...okay?"_

_"Daddy, I..." Penny was almost in a panic "I don't understand. What's happening?"_

_Mark sighed, sensing her fear. "It's alright, sweetie. It'll be okay. You won't be alone. You have Bolt. As I said before, I've altered him. He's stronger, faster. He can protect you now. So go to the store where you got him. The owner knows everything and will help you. Do you understand?" __There was a noise from the background, like a door slamming open. _

_ "Dad? DAD!" she was almost screaming now. "I...I think I get it now dad. But...why me?"_

_"I wish it wasn't you honey. I really do! But just...I love you, Penny...goodbye!"__ The line went dead._

Another tear came rolling down her cheek. _I miss you dad. _"I'll find you. I promise." She said aloud, shortly before drifting off into sleep.

* * *

"_Daddy_!" Penny shouted, awaking violently.

She surveyed the surroundings, _Was it all just a dream?_ No. She was still in the rusted interior of a freighter, the small amount of light from the stars peeking through the cracks in the hull. Then all of the events of the previous day flashed through her head. _Oh, right_. She looked down at what she could make out as Bolt in the darkness, looking on her with concern. "It's okay boy," she said, laying her head back down on the torn fabric of her pillow.

She looked back at her watch as Bolt lied down next to her, four thirty AM. She had slept almost twelve hours! She waited until Bolt had fallen back asleep, then she slowly stood and walked over to the entrance of the cave. Carefully stepping over the sleeping clone at the entrance, she looked out across the smoggy landscape, it was difficult to see without the light of a moon. "You should be getting some rest kid," a voice that almost made her jump came from the side.

She looked to see Rex and Anakin both sitting a few meters away, looking out towards the weapon. Most likely keeping an eye out for enemy patrols. "Sorry, I couldn't sleep anymore," she said walking over and sitting next to them.

"Well, you should at least rest," Anakin noted, still not making eye contact. "You'll need all the energy you can get to help us out tomorrow."

Penny was taken aback by this, "You...you _want_ me to help you?"

Anakin finally looked at her and smiled, "You're brave kid, I'll give you that," then he turned back to the direction of the base. "Only if you're up for it."

Penny thought for a moment, there was a good chance they could both be killed, and never find Mark. But she had to help them. They needed her and Bolt. "I'm up for anything they throw at us."

Anakin smiled, "Good, we'll need all the help we can get. Especially with that dog of yours."

Penny smiled as well, "He is one of a kind."


	16. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

The weapon looked even more terrifying up close. Or so Bolt thought.

"Okay, everyone clear on the plan?" Anakin said through his comlink. He received mixed number of confirmations. "Alright, Master Plo, are your men in position?"

"_Copy that Skywalker,"_ his voice came from the other end. _"Ready to attack on your signal."_

"Good," he replied and looked back on Penny, Bolt, Ahsoka, and the rest of his men. "Ready for this?."

Penny smiled and spoke first, "No."

He smiled back, "Me neither. Let's go then."

He climbed over the large speeder they were crouched behind and carefully ran up to the droid infested area, the clones closely following. They came to rest behind a large wall, just short of the area. Ahsoka looked through a small hole in it, seeing two battle droids right in front of it. "Let's hope master Plo's distraction works, or this'll be one short fight."

"It'll work snips," he assured. "Master Plo, we're in position, you can start your attack."

Then, after a second of silence, there was a large explosion from the other side of the compound. Followed be multiple blaster shots, ringing through the air, along with Grievous's angry shouts. The two droids standing guard jumped and quickly ran over to the site. Anakin smiled. _Perfect_. "Let's go!" he ordered, and jumped from behind the wall towards the control station.

The clones brandished their blasters and quickly followed. Penny was about to jump out when she felt something latch onto her shoe and pull her back. She looked down to see Bolt with a firm grip on her heel. _Don't do it Penny_. She sighed and bent down to release her foot. "It's okay Bolt," she said, removing her heel from Bolt's mouth. "I'll be fine. This is no different from attacking Calico."

She jumped from the wall and stayed close behind Jek, running towards the power station. _That's what I'm worried about_. Bolt thought as he ran after her.

* * *

Plo swiftly sliced through a super battle droid as what seemed like hundreds continued coming towards them. _One down_._ One hundred more to go._ He thought as he calmed himself and protected his men from the speeding bolts of laser fire. Then he sensed something unusual in the force. Something...unpleasant. Grievous. Though was confident with his position, for each clone that was shot or injured, ten or twenty droids fell. He felt he could overrun this facility alone, but that wasn't the plan. His men wouldn't stand a chance against Grievous. "Commander Wolffe!" Plo shouted back to his second in command over the buzzing blaster fire. "We need to pull them back further! Draw them back into those valleys!"

"Will do general!" Wolffe responded, too loyal to say what he really felt.

The troopers progressively began to fall back into the steel valleys which covered the natural hills of the planet. Plo grinned beneath his mask as he watched them draw the droids away. "_Stop you fools!_ They're leading you away!" an angry voice shouted from behind.

Plo turned around to see Grievous standing a few meters away from him, not having noticed the Jedi. "Grievous," Plo said boldly.

The cyborg turned to him and his reptilian eyes widened. "Ah," he said, becoming excited. "Master...Plo Koon, isn't it?"

"My reputation precedes me then," Plo responded, acting like it was a casual meeting. "As does yours, a murderous coward."

"Murderer?" he said innocently. "I'm no murderer, master Plo. I'm just doing my part to make the galaxy a better place. Starting with the elimination of you Jedi _filth_!"

"Killing Jedi _is_ murdering."

"Not to me," he said, removing his cape and splitting both his arms, each one holding a lightsaber and igniting it. "I've never killed a Kel-Dor before, General Plo. But, as you know, I am always willing to try new things."

"You've taken your last victim general," Plo said, activating his own lightsaber. "At last, the butcher of Hypori will meet Justice."

"We'll see," Grievous said, as lunged towards him.

The duel began.

* * *

So far, they had managed to stay hidden. They were all the way up to main generator control. About twenty-five or thirty of them. "Okay boys," Anakin said pulling out his lightsaber. "...And girls. Ready for a little challenge?"

They all nodded at once, "Ready for anything general," Rex reminded him.

He smiled in response. Then he activated his lightsaber and sliced through the first droid in front of him. As a reaction, all the others fired wildly at them, and missed. The clones sprung for their places as well and fired off their own blasters, taking down one droid after the next. "Okay kid," Jek called without looking away from the battle. "Wait until we can clear a path, then follow commander Tano to the power generator."

Penny nodded then ducked back down behind her cover, narrowly evading the blaster fire speeding towards her. She looked over to her left to see Ahsoka who was sitting next to her. The two smiled at each other, "Welcome to the war," Ahsoka joked.

"It's a wonder that guy is still in one piece," Penny responded, wiping the sweat from her face.

"It's a wonder for all of us," she said, then looked over at the blue and white astromech next to her. "Artooie, get ready to hack that system. Okay?"

The droid chirped happily as usual. Then Ahsoka looked back over and grabbed Penny's arm. "That's it, come on!"

She jumped over the wall, almost dragging Penny with her. The two quickly ran across the battlefield with the rest of Torrent company behind them, laying down cover fire. Penny watched through the blaster fire as the control station got closer and closer, praying that she and Bolt make it without being shot, or worse. _Almost there_. She almost dove to reach the safety of the generator control panels. They all quickly came to a stop behind the panels. Ahsoka looked over to see if everyone had made it, then to Penny, who looked back at her, "I haven't ran for my life for a while," she panted.

"Happens to me almost all the time," she replied, out of breath as well. "Let's go to work boys."

The clones nodded and removed multiple charges from their backpacks, "Think you can break through the security code kid? This won't work if we don't. Artoo can give you some assistance."

Penny nodded, and crawled over to the station where he was referring. She carefully sat in the uncomfortable, droid designed chair, which had a perfect view of the battle in front of her. and looked over the screen and accessed the security control. Her eyes widened. _This is almost exactly like Calico's system._ It would be easy. All too easy. Except for the different language. The characters on the screen were unlike anything she had seen before. She knew some French, but this was completely different. "Finding everything alright kid?" Rex asked, walking up to her, still firing his pistols off at the droids.

"Uh..." she stuttered, trying to speak up over the constant shots. "Fine. Except...I don't really think I know this language."

_Stang it._ Of course. She wasn't from a system that was part of the Republic. She had no idea what Aurebesh was. "Well...uh...Jek! Give this kid a hand!" he shouted.

Jek quickly ran over to her and understood what the problem was. "Artoo, show this kid where she needs to go," he ordered and returned to his post.

There was something about Jek that Penny liked, it wasn't his appearance, otherwise she would love the entire Grand Army. No, it was his personality, caring, calm, yet obedient and swift. _And maybe his eyes are..._ A near miss shot broke her out of her line of thought. She returned to her work to see Artoo had pulled up the reactor's main line of defense. She looked through and eliminated the virus nanobots that only droids could bypass. They were similar to the ones Calico used. Then she saw there was a file blinking. "That one?" she inquired.

He appeared to nod. She opened it and saw a smaller box come up, with a blinking line. She assumed it was where the pass code was entered. She looked down at the keyboard, numbers were the same for the most part. Then she heard a loud blast and looked over to the source, she gasped at what she saw. Jek had been hit in the arm. "Think you can do this?" she asked Artoo, who beeped in response. "Well...do your best."

Penny ran over to where Jek lay, "Are you okay Jek?" she asked, kneeling beside him. "I'm fine kid, but I think there may be some additional charges over by that bunker"

She looked over to where he was pointing, "Are you sure?" she asked, warily, not wanting to leave the safety of her current position.

"Pretty sure, agh!" pain shot through his arm again. Penny looked at him lay there, concern filling her eyes. "I'll be fine kid, just go. Now!"

She nodded and followed Ahsoka through the battle to the other bunker, Bolt taking down his share of droids. She looked back one more time at him. _You'll be fine._ Then made her way to the charges.


	17. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Plo narrowly dodged Grievous's twirling sabers. He was impressed by his attacks, although it was just as sloppy as a Sith. "Do you really think you can kill me?" Grievous snarled.

"I don't intend on killing you General," Plo responded, cutting one of his four arms. "You will stand trial before the Senate."

"I spit on your mercy, Jedi," Grievous responded, swiftly bringing one of his sabers down on Plo's, almost knocking it out of the Jedi's hand. "Your passion for your troops is your weakness."

"And your harshness with your troops is yours," he said, slicing through another of Grievous's lightsaber's. "It is over Grievous, soon your armies will join you in defeat."

"HAH! This war is far from over Jedi," Grievous roared, using his spare arm to grab his blaster. He fired on the Jedi while still attacking him with his duel sabers. "It _is_ over for you, _Jedi!_"

"Don't bet on it Grievous," Plo replied confidently. _Unless, he was expecting us..._

"We'll see," the general said. "Tell me, do you think Skywalker has disabled the power generator yet?"

The child._ No._

_

* * *

_

"What's the plan now?" Penny inquired, back to back with Ahsoka, surrounded by commando droids. With Bolt at her feet growling and thinking the same thing.

"I'm thinking, _I'm thinking!_" she retorted, holding her lightsaber out in front of her. "I should've known this was too easy! Nothing's easy in this war. If we just charge out, one of us will make it."

"And the other?" Penny asked, then figuring the answer in her head. Her mind raced furiously. Only one would make it, what if only one went? "Ahsoka! I have an idea!"

"I'm open to anything!" she said as one of the droids launched at her, swinging his sword. _A dead blade? That's new_.

"Lower your weapons," the droid commander shouted in deeper voice than the others, which sent a chill down Penny's spine.

Penny shoved the pack of spare detonators into Ahsoka's hands. "You take them back to the others. I hold 'em here." She pulled out a clone blaster and began blasting the circle of droids.

"Where'd you get that?" Ahsoka asked kicking away yet another droid.

"Took it from Jek, I don't think he'll mind much," she said, a bit blown back by the sudden force of the blaster. "Now go. We'll be fine, just hurry!"

"Are you sure?" she said as she noticed a small clearing back to the control pad. "What about you? You're too heavily outnumbered."

"You'll just have to come and get me," she blasted another droid as Bolt ripped through it. Then she saw the perfect clearing. "_Go!_" She almost pushed her through the wall of droids.

Ahsoka quickly jumped over the droids and ran back to the generator. She looked back at her, still holding off against them, Penny blasted some, Bolt ripped the rest apart. _She certainly has courage_. She admired that. She herself sliced one more droid, then ran back. Penny sighed in relief when she had disappeared, then turned back to the battle right in front of her. One of the droids had grabbed her blaster and was holding her by the arms. She struggled to get away only to see a droid behind her preparing to shoot her in the back. _Wait for it_. The droid fired, Penny jumped just to avoid the bolt, which hit her captor. She continued to fire wildly at the endless line of droids, looking back to make sure Bolt was alright. He was fine, but preoccupied. _So much for his help_. Then she realized something happened. It wasn't something she heard, it was something she didn't hear. She looked down at her blaster and saw she was pulling the trigger, but nothing was emitting from it. She had run out of ammunition! _Okay, only five or ten left. I can do this!_ She began swinging the blaster like a club at the advancing black wall, hitting each droid in the face, one simply shook it off and seized the gun out of her hand. She then proceeded to swing her fist into the droid's chest, with her injured arm. More pain ran through her arm than ever as blood began leaking out of her hand. The droid grabbed her by the arm and hurled her off the edge of the bunker, sending her plummeting down twenty feet into a small pool of leaked fuel, her foot catching on something on the bottom. _Not my day._

_

* * *

_

Bolt heard her shriek of pain and looked over just in time to see her fall into the gas. _PENNY!_ He was more enraged now more than ever. He lunged at five of the droids, swiftly tearing them apart. He through the body of another into the remaining group, knocking them over. He leapt in the air, and ignited his laser eyes to finish the them off. He stood there breathing heavily, and looked around, to see he had finished the entire squadron almost by himself. But he had little time to be proud. He ran over to the edge to see Penny hadn't resurfaced. He waited a few more seconds. Still nothing. _No. No Penny. Not now!_ He turned back to see Anakin, Rex, Ahsoka, and the other clones run up to the wide bunker.

"Where's Penny?" Anakin inquired, a thousand scenarios instantly began running through his head.

Bolt motioned to the cliff. _No._

_

* * *

_

"Come on kid. Breathe. _Breathe_!" Anakin became more and more desperate with each passing minute Penny was unconscious.

It had already been two standard minutes since he had pulled her from the bottom, he continued to push down on her chest, squeezing the fuel out of her shirt. But not her mouth. "C'mon kid. Don't do this! Give me sign here!" Anakin continued to plead, although remembering his teachings as a Jedi, he couldn't bear to see another innocent life taken by the Separatists. "Don't let go now, kid. Not after all that. C'mon."

Bolt felt completely shattered inside. He failed to protect Penny, he wasn't fast enough. Now she was gone. He paced dolefully up and down beside Penny's body. _I'm sorry Penny. I failed you. I failed your father. I did everything I could to protect you, it...it just wasn't good enough._ Bolt finally lied down next to her. He had to feel her warmth one more time. After an additional two minutes of trying to revive her, Anakin stopped and looked over at Bolt, then up at Ahsoka, who had both came to the same conclusion as he had. Penny was beyond saving. She was gone.

Anakin held back tears as best as he could. _I'm sorry kid. I'm sorry you ever came into this._ Tears hovered in Ahsoka's eyes also as she watched Anakin rise. "Come on," he said walking away, gesturing to two of his men to take her body. "We have to help master Plo."

The clones all nodded together and followed him. Artoo beeped mournfully as he followed as well. Rex looked back on her one final time...and noticed something unusual. Her chest was moving up and down. Could it be? Was it simply a figment of his saddened mind. No. It happened again. Bolt had noticed it also. "General..." Rex called cautiously.

Anakin turned to see Penny turn over and heave a large amount of liquid out of her mouth. He quickly ran over to her side, "You okay kid?" he asked, relieved, but still worried.

"I...think I'm..." she waited for her coughing to cease. "I think I'm fine."

A sigh of relief came from all of them. Rex took a small vile from his belt, "Here," he said, offering it to her. "It may not taste any better, but it'll help get that fuel out of your body safely."

Penny took and quickly drank it, anything tasted better than the fuel that had just been forced down her throat. "We thought we lost you kid," Anakin said, patting her on the back.

Bolt jumped up on her and began covering her face with licks, not caring how bad the fuel tasted. Penny giggled and started to push him off herself. "It's okay boy! I'm fine! It's okay," she sat up and looked lovingly into his eyes. "You're my good boy." Then she looked back to Rex remembering . "How's Jek?"

Rex's smile vanished off his face. "Um..." he stuttered, not sure how else to put it. "Jek's...I'm sorry kid. Jek's dead. He lost too much blood."

She gasped sharply at this, tears entering her eyes. "Oh..." she said softly. _He wasn't going to be fine._ Then another question entered her head. "What about that...general, guy?"

Anakin stiffened up. Indeed. What about Grievous? Had master Plo and his men been able to hold out? There was a way to find out. "That's right. We have to help master Plo!" Ahsoka said hastily.

Artoo beeped excitedly. "We will," Anakin assured. "_And_ capture Grievous, this time." _We have to. I'll make sure of it._


	18. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Plo kicked the blaster out of Grievous's hand and parried his lightsaber attack, sending it twirling out of the cyborg's hand. Grievous snarled and continued the saber onslaught, "I will enjoy removing your mask, and watching you suffocate, Kel-Dor _scum_!" he shouted, grabbing one of his sabers from the ground in an attempt to surprise the Jedi.

But Plo swiftly jumped out of the way and came back down in a force blast, sending Grievous flying into a small, open cockpit speeder. Then his comlink rang, it was Wolffe. "_General Plo!_" he shouted from the other end. "_We've defeated all the droids sir. We had a pretty good advantage in that valley. What are your orders?_"

_It's obvious isn't it?_ "Head back to my location. We're going to capture Grievous once and for all!" Plo responded, walking towards the dazed droid general.

"Yes sir!" the excited response said.

Grievous stood groggily from the ruined upholstery, "Don't bet on it Jedi!" he activated a control on his comlink and launched himself once more at the Jedi master.

Plo quickly deflected the attack, "It's over Grievous! Your droids are gone! Your base is destroyed! Your weapon, _finished_! It is pointless to continue to resist! Surrender!"

"_Never_!" the monster shouted. "Even if you _do_ defeat me, you will never stop us from controlling the galaxy! Our armies are endless!"

"But your capture will change that! My troops _and_ Skywalker are on their way, and you will have no choice but to surrender, or die!"

Grievous's gaze turned to the sky. "Like I said, Jedi," he said, grabbing the rest of his lightsabers and launching a wrist mounted tow cable somewhere. "Don't _count on it_!"

Plo looked to see the cable land on the back of the Sheathipede shuttle as it blaster off into the smog filled sky, taking Grievous with it. Plo jumped at him and tried to bring him back down, only to be punched off and fall back down. He landed gracefully on his feet, and watched helplessly as Grievous was lifted higher and higher, deflecting the blaster shots of Wolfpack's blaster as he rose. "Until next time Jedi!" he shouted.

_Blast. So the war continues._ Wolffe ran up to him in his custom maroon armor. "I...I'm sorry general, I failed you. He's gone," he apologized.

Plo sighed and placed his hand on his shoulder pad, "None of the blame is yours commander, I assure you," he said, looking to the base entrance to see Skywalker, Ahsoka, the child, a sigh of relieve followed, and the rest of Torrent company standing there, realizing what had just happened.

Anakin looked at Plo with disappointment. Plo nodded. _Another day General_.

* * *

The gunships finally arrived at the base, bringing the repulsar stretchers for the wounded. Admiral Yularen accompanied them. "What are the casualties?" he inquired, walking up to Anakin.

"About seven," Anakin answered, a sober expression on his face. "Three from Torrent, four from Wolfpack. And two too injured to stand. Out of the sixteen that came down here."

Yularen sighed, "I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help sir. I should have suspected something when we lost your signal. But I thought it was only because of the multiple communications down there."

"It wasn't your fault Admiral," Anakin assured. "At least you found us at all."

"And the child?" he continued.

"Fine. Gave us a little bit of a scare, but otherwise fine."

The admiral nodded as he walked back towards the direction he was called from. _Where is she anyway?_ He thought as he looked around. She couldn't be far off. He walked past the few clones who were still standing. "Coric, have you seen Penny anywhere?" he asked.

"Yes sir, last I saw her, she was by the outer wall," the sergeant responded.

Anakin nodded and walked over to where he referred to. He saw Penny sitting in a small hole in the metal ground. Next to Bolt. He was about to speak, when he noticed she had thrown up. He sighed, knowing exactly why. "Penny," he said, walking down to her level. "You okay?"

She looked up at him, he could tell she had been crying. She nodded and slowly stood, walking over to him. "I'm fine," she replied weakly.

Anakin put his arm around her as she walked back to the gunships. "None of this was your fault Penny, okay?" he said, reassuringly. "You saved us on more than one occasion. We thank you for that. You've done the Republic a great service." She was still looking down the ground. He stopped and turned to face her. "I know it's hard kid. It's not easy seeing the reality of war. Though we suffer great losses, we fight knowing that we're coming closer to peace."

"I know," she responded, quietly. "When I'm fighting Calico and trying to save my father, I know it doesn't feel like I'm getting anywhere, but I know I'm protecting something worth fighting for."

"Peace?" She nodded. "You're brave kid, I'll give you that. You've got a lot of heart and spirit. You're even a good shooter." She smiled and patted Bolt on the head. "That's the kind stuff we need."

Penny looked back up at him curiously. "Are...are you saying, you want me to...?"

"Only if you're up for it."

She thought about it. She knew she had to help Mark. But she also knew the training could help herself. And Mark would be fine as long she was out of Calico's reach. "I guess it wouldn't hurt," she began cautiously.

"I don't want to force you into this, it's your choice," he reminded her, continuing towards the gunship. "We certainly could use your bravery. It's something we're a little short on in war."

"Alright," she said, smiling. "I do it."

Anakin returned a smile, "Good, let's get going. You've got a lot of training ahead of you." Penny sighed loud enough for him to hear. "...after some rest of course."

Artoo bumped her side. She looked down at the blue little astromech, and bent down beside him. "I don't think I can be as brave as you, little guy." The droid gave a curt reply, as if saying "You already are." and rolled away. She looked at Bolt, who gave her a disapproving stare. "It's okay boy," she said, turning to him. "You do your job, I'll do mine."

She gave him another kiss on the head. He wagged his tail in response. She stood and returned to the gunship and looked up at the cruisers overhead. _I'll do it. For Bolt. For them. For this...whole galaxy. And for you, dad._


	19. Epilogue

Epilogue

Grievous walked into the main control room of the Separatist secret base where Dooku was waiting for him beside TV-94 and a holographic Ventress. "I received the news from Raxus Prime," he said, with a cold stare. "Most, disappointing."

"Yes. I apologize, my lord," Grievous said, his fists clenched.

"Apologies are not always acceptable General," he said, walking around the holographic display of the galaxy. "Your losses are beginning to outnumber your victories. And if we are to win this war, that is something we cannot allow."

"Yes, but..." Grievous began.

"I sense you are losing your focus, your lack of vigil, your..."

"You cannot blame me!" he the general snapped, silencing the count. "If I had better droids, I would be walking over the ruins of the Jedi temple _right now_!"

Dooku waited a moment to respond, "Perhaps. But you would not have slain a single one of the Jedi in the Temple. You would be killed, as the Jedi would have the upper hand. They are _focused_. Calm. While you are distracted, and much too tense."

Grievous looked past him to Ventress, who kept a serious look on her face. He could she was smiling. On the inside. She was pleased she was better than him. Or so she thought. "Do not concern yourself with these minor setbacks my friend," a dark voice came from behind Dooku.

Ventress quickly kneeled at the hologram before her. Dooku turned to see Darth Sidious's blue image in front of him. "Ah, master," Dooku said. "I see you have heard the news."

"Yes, indeed," he said calmly. "Do not fret with these losses, these weapons are simple tools to keep the Jedi off of what truly matters to us. Except for one, of course."

Grievous looked up at him, "The _Malevolence_?"

"Precisely," he answered. "And if that fails, I assure you. This war, is _still_ balanced in our favor" _And the Republic will fall. I have foreseen it._

* * *

_"While the sacrifices are heavy, we fight knowing that a single spark of courage can ignite the fires of hope, and restore peace across the galaxy._" ―Unidentified Republic trooper

* * *

_**Author's Notes**_

_**I had a dream, shortly after seeing Bolt for the fourth time. I thought of what would happen if the aliens that abducted "Penny" were the Separatists. I've had this idea for some time now, and it was only early to mid 2010 when I was inspired to put my stories into writing. All thanks to a FanFiction called: Bolt the Superdog: Origins. After reading that (and a few clone wars novels), I pulled my ideas from my head and put them into words.**_

_**Thanks to:**_

_**AustralianChaos, for writing the masterpiece of Origins and inspiring me to write.**_

_**Disney Animation studios, for making the masterpiece of **_**Bolt**_**.**_

_**George Lucas, who brought the Star Wars universe to life over three decades ago.**_

_**All other Bolt FanFic and Clone Wars novel writers.**_

_**And to all the readers out there. I **_**know**_** you're out there!**_

_**Read on for the news reel in songfic form. I do plan on writing a sequel to this, so keep your eyes peeled! Until then, **__**"Keep your pens sharp, your keyboards clean, and remember: There is no such thing as a wannabe writer...either you are a writer, or you are not, and only YOU can make that choice!"**_

"_**Do. Or do not. There is no try."**_

* * *

News Reel

A galaxy divided by war! (Republic Cruisers under attack by the _Malevolence _over Abregado)

Peaceful planets must choose sides, (Onaconda Farr and his people greet Viceroy Gunray as he lands on Rodia)

or face the threat of invasion! (Battle droids hold the Twi'leks prisoner on Ryloth)

Unable to keep up with the rapidly moving Separatist Fleet, led by the notorious General Grievous, (Separatist ships drop out of hyperspace with Grievous on the bridge)

the Republic cannot spare enough time, ships, or Jedi, (Clone troopers line up next to large Republic cruisers on Coruscant)

to stop Separatist advances in the Outer Rim, and far reaches of space. (Grievous's fleet comes out of hyperspace and flies towards Bothawui)

Meanwhile, while being pursued by the fiendish Dr. Calico's sinister agents, Penny and her dog Bolt were abducted by General Grievous, mistaking Penny for a Republic Intelligence Agent. (Penny and Bolt escape from the hospital but are pulled upward by a tractor beam)

After learning of the General's mistake and seeing this as an opportunity to catch the monster, (Masters Plo Koon, Obi-Wan, and Yoda receive a holographic clone intelligence report in Palpatine's office)

the Jedi Council sends Master Plo Koon, Anakin Skywalker, and his padawan Ahsoka Tano to save Penny and Bolt before Grievous realizes their true identities… (Anakin, Plo, and Ahsoka are on the bridge of the _Resolute_ as it goes into hyperspace).


End file.
